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14 


J.    M.    PEEBLES,   A.M.,    M.D.,   Ph.D. 


SEERS  OF  THE  AGES: 


EMBRACING 


SPIEITUALISM 


PAST  AND  PRESENT.  » 


DOCTRINES  STATED  AND  MORAL  TENDENCIES  DEFINED. 


By   J.   M.   PEEBLES,    M.  D. 


I  have  stolen  the  golden  keys  of  the  Egyptians ;  I  will  indulge  my  sacred 
fury. — Kepler. 

Old  and  new  make  the  warp  and  woof  of  every  moment.  The  highest  state- 
ment of  new  philosophy  complacently  caps  itself  with  some  prophetic  maxim 
from  the  oldest  learning.  There  is  something  mortifying  in  this  perpetual 
circle  — Eueison. 

Master  mind  and  you  master  the  universe. — Perasee  Lendinta. 
It  doth  not  yet  appear  what  we  shall  be. — Apostle  John. 


OFT    • 

CHICAGO  : 

PROGRESSIVE  THINKER  PUBLISHING  HOUSE. 


*^/ 


EDUC. 

PSYGH. 

LIBRAM 


p 


REETING 


TO    THE 


Risen    Spirit    of     Aaron    Knight. 


Love  is  immortal.  Golden  is  the  chain  that  unites  the  past  with 
the  present.  More  beautiful  is  the  spirit-blossom  for  the  sweet  love- 
budding  of  earth.  Precious  in  spirit-history  is  Yorkshire,  England — 
not  so  much  for  his  noble  descent  and  clerical  culture,  as  for  his 
happy  home  there,  whose  first  memories  of  incarnate  life,  maternally 
pure,  cling  to  his  soul  as  lingering  melodies  from  inspired  minstrels. 
Passing  early  through  the  pale-curtained  doorway  of  death,  to  his 
"  Pear  Grove  Cottage,"  in  the  upper  kingdoms  of  immortality,  rapid 
and  rhythmic  has  been  thy  march  of  progress. 

Though  gathering  pearls  of  knowledge  from  the  risen  seers  of  India, 
Syria  and  Greece,  storing  thy  receptive  nature  with  those  heavenly 
truths  and  divine  experiences  that  abound  so  full  and  free  for  all  in  the 
ever-green  gardens  of  the  Infinite — thou  hast  not  forgotten  thy  mortal 
brothers  and  sisters,  who  feel  their  way  in  comparative  darkness,  and, 
like  children,  continually  cry  for  light  and  wise  spirit  guidance. 

Oft  as  hearts  have  ached,  tears  fallen,  or  martyred  feet,  on  missions 
of  mercy,  have  crimsoned  the  soil,  thou  hast  turned  thy  calm  presence 
earthward,  laden  with  balms,  baptisms  and  benedictions. 

To  me  hast  thou  come  in  lone  evening  hours,  bringing  the  dewy 
freshness  of  a  foreshadowed  morning,  pearling  the  veiled  momenti  of 

iho- 


IV  aREETINQ. 

despair,  diffusing  inner  sunshine  and  gladness;  in  wintry  seasons  ot 
discontent,  scattering  delicious  blooms,  laden  with  love's  ii.cense,  and 
speaking  words  of  tenderness  starry  with  promise — words  so  aglow 
with  heavenly  instruction  as  to  make  music  in  the  blissful  homos  of 
the  glorified.  How  oft  hast  thou  come  with  ''  Celestia,"  "  Morning 
Star "  and  "  Queen  of  Morn*' — Sisters  of  Purity — who  prelude  thy 
philosophy  with  the  harmonizing  melodies  of  the  harp,  the  lute  and 
the  lyre !  How  indebted  am  I  to  thee  for  thy  symbolic  illustrations, 
logical  acumen,  originality  of  thought,  and  messages  warm  with 
sympathy  from  an  overflowing  heart ! 

Spirit  Brother !  as  a  feeble  token  of  appreciation  and  soul-felt 
gratitude,  for  thy  watch-care  and  many  favors,  permit  me  to  dedicate 
this  volume  to  thee,  as  one  of  my  immortal  Teachers. 

J.  M.  PEEBLES,  M.  D. 


A  NOTED  MAN  OF  THE  CENTURY. 


PUBLISHER'S  PREFACE  TO  A  REMARKABLE  WORK. 


The  writer  of  this  volume  (translated  into  several  different 
languages),  Dr.  J.  M.  Peebles,  whose  motto  is,  "The  world  is 
my  parish,  and  truth  my  authority,"  is  quite  as  well  known 
in  England,  in  Europe,  in  Australia  and  other  islands  of  the 
ocean,  as  in  his  native  New  England. 

He  is  now  in  his  eighty-second  year,  hale  and  vigorous. 
His  active  life  as  a  reformer,  especially  in  the  spiritual  inter- 
ests of  humanity,  seems  to  have  been  a  "charmed"  one,  for 
though  four  times  circumnavigating  the  globe,  as  well  as 
traveling  by  land  in  nearly  all  civilized  countries,  lecturing 
and  writing  as  he  traveled,  upon  social  and  religious  sub- 
jects, he  has  never  met  with  an  accident  by  railway  or 
steamer.  He  often  quotes  the  passage,  "He  shall  give  his 
angels  charge  over  thee,  to  keep  thee." 

Though  his  childhood  education  was  strictly  orthodox,  he 
early  broke  away  from  all  Calvinistic  shackles  into  the 
broader  fields  of  Universalism.  This  liberal  sect  took  him 
to  the  border-land  of  faith,  and  there  left  him;  but  faith  and 
denominational  donations  did  not  satisfy  him.  His  unfold- 
ing nature  sought  for  knowledge — knowledge  of  a  future  ex- 
istence, its  recognitions,  conditions  and  employments. 
These  blessed,  soul-satisfying  truths  he  found  in  Spiritual- 
ism. Promptly  he  took  his  stand  upon  this  rampart  of  truth 
over  fifty  years  ago,  and  his  trumpet  ever  since  has  given 
no  uncertain  sound.  While  he  is  an  ardent  lover  of  human- 
ity, he  is  an  enthusiastic  hater  of  shams,  crushing  creeds, 
hypocrisy,  political  diplomacy  and  moral  cowardice. 

While  the  Doctor  is  a  Spiritualist,  he  is  not,  and  never  has 
been  a  one-sided,  one-rut  man;  but  has  stood  in  the  front 
ranks  of  such  reforms  as  anti-slavery,  women's  suffrage  and 
temperance.  He  was  one  of  the  three  that  founded  the  Inde- 
pendent Order  of  Good  Templars.  Upon  reaching  South 
Africa  on  his  third  trip  around  the  world,  he  found  five 
lodges  of  the  Templars  in  Cape  Town. 


THE  PUBLISHER'S  PREFACE. 

In  medicine  our  Pilgrim  (he  is  often  called  the  "Spiritual- 
ist Pilgrim")  graduated  some  thirty  years  ago  from  the  Phil- 
adelphia (Pa.)  University,  and  is  legally  the  peer  of  any  in 
his  profession;  and  yet,  increasing  knowledge  and  research 
have  lessened  his  drugs  and  increased  his  faith  in  the  psy- 
chic treatment.  The  soul  and  soul-forces,  he  contends,  are 
the  great  healers.  He  is  an  omnivorous  reader  and  an  adept 
in  religious  history.  When  in  the  British  Museum  Library 
(London),  he  writes:  "I  am  in  paradise.  Eating  and  drink- 
ing have  no  attractions,  and  time  is  not." 

He  is  a  rigid  hygienist,  eating  no  animal  flesh  or  fowl, 
and  he  neither  uses  tea  nor  coffee,  tobacco,  liquor  or  wines. 
These  he  pronounces  expensive,  useless  injuries,  instead  of 
useful  luxuries. 

While  writing  largely  for  the  press  and  such  magazines  as 
the  Arena,  Mind,  Suggestion,  Free  Thought  Magazine  and 
the  Psychic  Era,  he  is  the  author  of  a  large  number  of  books 
and  pamphlets,  including  "Seers  of  the  Ages;"  "Travels 
Around  the  World;"  "Death  Defeated,  or  the  Psychic  Secret 
of  How  to  Keep  Young;"  "The  Christ  Question  Settled,"  a 
Symposium  by  Hudson  Tuttle,  Rabbi  Wise,  W.  E.  Coleman, 
Col.  Ingersoll,  J.  S.  Loveland,  B.  B.  Hill,  J.  R.  Buchanan,  and 
edited  by  Dr.  Peebles;  "Immortality,  and  Our  Employments 
Hereafter;"  "Vaccination  a  Curse  and  a  Menace  to  Personal 
Liberty;"  "Spiritualism  Versus  Materialism;"  "What  is 
Spiritualism,  Who  Are  These  Spiritualists,  and  What  Has 
Spiritualism  Done  for  the  World?"  "Obsession,  or  the  Reign 
of  Evil  Spirits."  These  are  handsomely  bound  volumes. 
Among  his  pamphlets  are  "Three  Jubilee  Lectures;"  "The 
Soul,  Did  It  Pre-exist?"  "The  Fiftieth  Anniversary  of  Spirit- 
ualism;" "Pro  and  Con  of  Spiritualism;"  "India  and  Her 
Magic;"  "Spiritualism  in  all  Lands  and  Times;"  "  A  Critical 
and  Crushing  Review  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Kipp;"  "The  Orthodox 
Hell  and  Infant  Damnation;"  "The  Pentecost,  or  a  New 
Heaven  and  a  New  Earth;"  "Spiritualism  Commanded  of 
God;"  "The  General  Teachings  of  Spiritualism;"  "A  Plea  for 
Justice  to  Mediums;"  "Dr.  Peebles'  Eightieth  Birthday  Anni- 
versary," and  other  pamphlets  now  out  of  print.  The  late 
J.  O.  Barrett  and  Prof.  E.  Whipple  have  written  exhaustive 
biographies  of  Dr.  Peebles. 

Having  been  pressingly  invited,  he  is  now  contemplating  a 
missionary  tour  through  India  and  Ceylon.  He  cannot  rest 
from  travel. 

This  author  of  "Seers  of  the  Ages"  has  been  connected  for 


THE  PUBLISHER'S  PREFACE. 

many  years  with  the  Free  Masons  and  Odd  Fellows,  and  is  a 
fellow  of  the  Anthropological  Society,  London;  the  Psycho- 
logical Association,  London;  the  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sci- 
ences, Naples;  member  of  the  International  Climatic  Asso- 
ciation; American  Institute  of  Christian  Philosophy;  the 
Victoria  Institute  and  Philosophical  Society  of  Great  Britain, 
etc.  This  latter  institute,  the  pronounced  peer  of  the  Royal 
Society,  sent  the  Doctor  last  October  a  delegate  to  the  instal- 
lation of  Prof.  James  as  President  of  the  Northwestern  Uni- 
versity at  Evanston,  111.  He  was  connected  with  the  North- 
west Peace  Commission,  was  sent  by  General  Grant  in  1869 
as  United  States  Consul  to  Asiatic  Turkey,  and  was  ap- 
pointed in  1869  to  represent  the  United  States  Arbitration 
League  in  Paris.  He  is  a  member  of  the  Universal  Peace 
Union  of  Philadelphia,  contending  that  arbitration  should 
take  the  place  of  war. 

Dr.  Peebles  delivered  the  first  series  of  Sunday  evening 
lectures  upon  Spiritualism  ever  delivered  in  London,  Aus- 
tralia, New  Zealand  and  Tasmania.  He  has  truly  been  a  pio- 
neer pilgrim,  and  still  lectures  nearly  every  Sunday  in  cities 
not  far  distant  from  Battle  Creek.  He  is  an  early  riser,  and 
diligent  worker  with  the  pen,  which  at  times  is  severe,  if  not 
sarcastic,  and  yet  he  is  one  of  the  most  forgiving  and  genial 
of  men,  cherishing  not  a  particle  of  malice  towards  his  pen- 
and-ink  opponents. 

Though  past  four  score  years,  and  nearing  life's  setting 
sun,  there  is  not  a  fragment  of  doubt  in  his  mind  but  that  the 
incompleteness  of  this  rudimentary  life  will,  on  some  ap- 
proaching evening  time  open  up  into  the  sunlight  of  a  higher 
life  of  unfoldment  and  ultimate  completeness — one  God,  one 
law,  one  brotherhood  and  one  grand  destiny  for  all  humanity. 

The  real  genius  of  the  Doctor's  energetic  and  eventful  life 
cannot  be  better  described  than  the  way  he  expressed  it 
himself  in  closing  his  address  at  his  eightieth  birthday  recep- 
tion, in  Masonic  Hall,  Melbourne,  Australia: 

"There's  nothing  like  the  turning,  whirling  grindstone  of 
toil  to  put  an  edge  on  the  steel  of  human  nature.  Laziness 
I  abhor  and  consider  industry  the  best  stuff  for  the  making 
of  saints.  Books  feed  me,  while  crowds  and  parlor  babble 
starve  me.  Often  do  I  go  away  from  the  multitude  hungry — 
go  into  the  silence;  here  is  a  bread  which  the  masses  know 
not  of 

"I  have  made  a  success  of  life  because  I  sought  opportuni- 
ties and  molded  circumstances.     Games  do  not  interest  me 


THE  PUBLISHER'S  PREFACE. 

as  do  grasses,  gardens  and  the  flowers  that  I  talk  with  in 
summer  mornings  before  the  rising  sun  greets  me.  Come 
light  or  darkness,  I  do  not  worry.  The  wild  winds  that  howl 
purify  the  air,  and  the  rains  that  rust  the  wheat  revive  the 
grass.  Often  misunderstood,  sometimes  misrepresented, 
frequently  walking  on  thorn-piercing  pavements,  I  stopped 
not  by  the  wayside  to  bemoan  the  rough  pathway,  but  trav- 
eled on,  inspired  by  faith  within  and  warmed  by  the  shining 
sun  above  me.  I  never  witnessed  a  starless  night.  If  clouds 
shut  away  the  glimmerings  of  the  stars  from  my  vision,  I 
knew  that  they  were  still  above  shining,  and  that  the  radi- 
ance of  morning  light  would  come. 

"I  have  no  conception  of  'tottering'  down  the  decline  of 
life.  The  phrase  is  beyond  my  comprehension.  I  expect  to 
work  on  to  the  very  morning  of  my  departure,  and  sleep  into 
the  better  land  of  immortality  at  the  sunset  of  the  same 
evening.  I  feel  as  though  I  had  but  just  begun  to  live — to 
see,  to  comprehend.  I  am  planning  work  for  twenty-five 
coming  years.  Heights  rise  above  me,  and  I  am  conscious  of 
the  mighty  immensities  lying  beyond.  Sometimes,  for  the 
moment,  a  sad  thought  comes  to  me  when  I  think  that  I 
have  outlived  so  many  of  my  esteemed  contemporaries. 
They  are  not  dead,  but  my  co-workers  still. 

"Personally,  I  am  too  busy  to  think  about  death,  and  there 
is  anyway,  too  much  fuss  made  about  dying.  It  is  nature's 
process  of  laying  down  a  fleshly  burden,  and  of  the  rising  of 
the  spiritual  up  into  the  brightness  and  blessed  beatitudes  of 
immortality." 

In  conclusion  we  will  say  that  Dr.  Peebles  is  distinguished 
as  an  author,  orator,  physician  and  traveler.  His  name  is 
recognized  in  every  clime  that  encircles  the  globe.  His 
kindness  and  benevolence  are  too  well  known  to  need  men- 
tion. Here  is  one  instance:  He  gives  to  us  outright  the 
plates  of  this  remarkable  book,  "THE  SEERS.  OF  THE 
AGES,"  and  it  will  be  sent  forth  to  our  thousands  of  sub- 
scribers for  a  mere  pittance.  It  will  be  a  MONUMENT  per- 
petuating his  name  long  after  he  shall  have  passed  to  the 
spirit  realms,  for  it  will  be  practically  a  gift  to  our  subscrib- 
ers, and  an  immense  number  will  be  distributed  in  this  coun- 
try and  Europe.  As  to  its  merits,  no  other  book  in  the  whole 
realm  of  Spiritualism  excels  it  in  intrinsic  value  or  merit,  or 
will  do  a  greater  amount  of  good  in  the  ranks  of  Spiritualism. 

J.  R.  FRANCIS. 


T 


HE      fioROSCOPE, 


0  soul,  0  hungering,  thirsting  soul !  for  thee  the  fountains  of  the 
great  deep  are  breaking  up,  and  sweet  life-waves,  long  obscured  in  the 
debris  of  ages,  are  flowing  love  at  thy  feet,  "  Whosoever  will,  let  hin 
take  of  the  waters  of  life  freely." 

Truth  is  immortal,  and  long  after  the  lips  that  spoke  it  have  mingled 
their  dust  with  the  Lethean  stream,  traceable  afterwards  by  the  freed 
spirit,  it  echoes  through  the  arches  of  heaven,  the  choral  base  of  angel 
song  that  celebrates  the  eras  of  progress.  What,  then,  cares  "  Brother 
James,"  for  praise  or  blame,  approbation  or  censure  ?  "I  testify  of 
myself! "  is  the  language  that  speaks  from  his  heart,  beating  along  the 
sun-mantled  shores  of  time  "  to  seek  and  to  save  that  which  was  lost/' 

This  brother  has  subpoenaed  me,  under  solemn  oath,  to  write  this 
preface — actually  ordered  it  as  a  "  Thus  saith  Perasee  Lendanta ! " 
"  Well,"  I  said,  "  tell  Perasee,  the  Italian  prince  of  gods,  so  majesti- 
cally calm  and  commanding,  that  neither  he  nor  you  shall  change  "one 
jot  or  tittle  "  of  my  testimony ;  nor  shall  either  of  you  know  what  is 
written  about  you  and  your  work,  until  the  same  is  stereotyped.  This 
proviso  being  very  meekly  accepted,  I  would  like  your  eyes,  dear 
reader,  for  a  deep  insight  into  the  ocean  mind  of  "  St.  James." 
Earnest,  determined,  full  of  innocent  sarcasm  which  no  man  can  tame ; 
toned  to  sympathy,  sparkling  with  wit  and  lofty  thought;  beloved 
throughout  America ;  himself  impressed  upon  the  present  age ;  a  con- 
5ding  companion  of  his  loving  brother,  John,  the  disciple  of  Jesus,  it 


VI  THE   HOROSCOPE. 

ia  not  too  much  to  prophesy,  that  his  book,  here  offered  the  world,  will 
be  as  a  sun  in  myriad  homes  on  the  Western  and  Eastern  continents. 
Let  me  snatch  from  oblivion  one  of  his  manuscripts,  indexing  the 
man  himself,  bringing  us  nearer  his  soul,  so  buoyant  and  free,  so 
childlike  and  parental : 

"  Pythagoras  lives  in  sacred  memory,  as  well  as  in  Jamblichus'  classic 
prose.  Jesus  lives,  though  the  mould  is  deep  over  the  gardens  and 
olive  groves  that  once  felt  the  pressure  of  his  bleeding  feet.  Demos- 
thenes lives  in  that  oration  upon  the  crown.  Mozart  lives  in  those 
undying  melodies  that  inspired  with  diviner  ideals  the  courtly  and  the 
sceptered  of  Europe.  The  dewdrop  writes  its  history  on  the  plant ; 
the  stream  its  on  the  mountain  side ;  the  fossil  its  in  the  rock ; 
the  flower  its  on  the  passing  breeze;  you,  yours,  dear  reader,  on 
the  sensorial  faculties  and  future  organisms  of  a  world-wide 
brotherhood,  and  you  will  live,  too,  on  earth  forever  in  the 
forces  you  put  in  motion,  the  work  you  accomplish,  the  good  you  do. 
I  shall  live  when  this  parchment  will  have  been  smothered  under  the 
rubbish  of  such  viewless  waste-winds  as  swept  over  those  fearful 
midnights  that  gloomed  in  darkness  the  mediaeval  ages.  Inspiration 
over-swept  and  over-arched  all  the  past  generations.  There  were 
paradises  lost  and  gained,  scores  of  centuries  since;  and,  during  their 
growth,  or  decline,  Spiritualism,  in  some  form,  was  a  star  of  promise  in 
their  midst.  It  is  to-day  a  light,  a  voice,  a  power  from  heaven — a 
divine  power  acknowledged  by  millions,  rolling  the  "  stone  "  of  doubt 
away  from  the  door  of  a  long  entombed  humanity.  It  is  not  only 
the  "  second  coming,"  but  virtually  a  continuous  coming  in  the  clouds 
of  heaven  with  attending  angels,  the  hope  and  the  pledge  of  universal 
redemption.'* 

The  Pastophora  is  the  production  of  years  of  close  and  severe 
searching,  amid  other  pressing  claims  upon  his  attention.  With 
indefatigable  labor,  James  has  gathered  rich  lore  where  others  saw  only 
alloy.  A  band  of  spirits,  some  of  them  very  ancient,  and  all  lovers  of 
antiquity,  desirous  of  blossoming  into  life  "  things  new  and  old,''  has 
directed  his  mind  and  his  steps  adown  the  sombre  walks  of  the  past, 


THE   HOROSCOPE.  YU 

amid  the  brooding  silence  of  buried  civilizations.  The  pyramids  had 
voices  for  him ;  the  obelisks  glared  forth  a  hidden  mystery  in  their 
inscriptions;  rocks  and  tombs,  scepters  and  swords,  dust  and 
ashes,  all  bore  traces  of  oracles  that  once  built  kingdoms  and 
empires,  all  were  prints  of  events  readable  under  the  spirit- 
vision  of  his  guides,  aflash  with  the  truth  that  ministering  angels 
have  ever  been  the  arbiters  of  human  destinies.  The  Pasto- 
PHORA  is  the  faithful  record  of  this  pilgrimage  of  study  offered 
now  to  the  world  as  a  beautiful  repository  of  "  Ancient  and 
Modern  Spiritualism."  It  is  doubtless  the  first  and  only  work  ever 
published  that  has  placed  the  past  wave-eras,  with  their  representative 
spiritual  chieftains,  in  chronological  and  systematic  order.  As  such,  in 
construction  at  least,  it  is  "  something  new  under  the  sun."  A  book 
of  biographical  and  spiritual  reference,  it  is  of  inestimable  value. 
Its  literary  and  philosophical  qualities  are  obviously  of  a  high  tone, 
both  in  style  and  sentiment,  all  throbbing  through  with  a  pure  love  of 
truth,  and  a  deep  reverence  for  whatever  ennobles  humanity  and  lifts 
it  up  to  divine  life. 

The  greatest  difficulty  he  has  had  to  encounter,  amid  such  a 
profusion  of  spiritual  evidences,  was  to  do  justice  to  the  great  multitude 
of  witnesses  rising  on  every  side,  demanding  a  hearing.  In  his  descent 
into  the  ocean  of  the  past,  he  found  so  vast  a  plain  of  precious  pearls, 
there  is  not  room  to  enshrine  them  all  in  this  beautiful  cabinet ;  but 
enough  are  gleaned  to  show  that  our  heavenly  philosophy,  like  silver 
veins,  branches  in  all  possible  directions — a  vast  and  inexhaustible  mine 
of  immortal  wealth,  exhuming  for  incorporation  into  the  spiritual 
temple  we  build.  A  complete  analysis  of  the  spiritual  phenomena, 
variegated  with  eclectic  beauties,  sweet  with  the  love  of  truth,  it  may 
be  properly  styled — "  Paradise  Regained." 

Another  attractive  feature  is  its  spiritual  symbolism — 'which  is  the 
language  exalted  angels  use — conveying  to  the  senses,  as  well  as 
understanding,  truth  set  as  diamonds  in  gold — a  speculum  of  the 
spiritual  philosophy  reflecting  the  "  soul  of  things."  Even  the  title 
of  the  book  is  peculiarly  significant. 


Vni  THE   HOROSCOPE. 

Pastophora  is  lexicographically  related  with  pastor — shepherd — 
iudicative  of  ministerial  office  for  the  protection  of  the  religious  flock. 
It  is  originally  rooted  in  the  Sanscrit — the  oldest  language  in  the 
world;  and,  used  in  the  plural,  Pastophorae,  literally  means  dwellers 
in  the  temples.  It  is,  therefore,  a  most  beautiful  title,  euphonious  in 
pronunciation,  symbolizing  the  inner  life,  burning  as  a  Shekinah 
watch -light  to  the  worshiping  soul  in  its  own  "holy  of  holies.' 

The  interested  reader  will  also  inquire  into  the  meaning  of  the 
symbols  on  the  back  of  the  book — the  cross^  triangle^  and  circle.  As 
he  carefully  peruses  these  pages,  he  will  discover  that  the  data  of  the 
world's  progress  in  civilizations  center  in  India,  whose  religious  symbol, 
providential  as  it  seems,  is  the  circle,  representing  God,  the  Universal 
Soul. 

All  things  are  trinal — body,  soul  and  spirit;  man  is  this  perfect 
trinity — the  cross,  the  triangle,  the  circle.  Geologically  our  world 
started  from  the  circle.  It  extended  then  to  the  broadness  of  its 
orbit  in  a  gaseous  condition  incipient  to  crystalization.  Contracting, 
the  elements  were  angularized — divided,  sharp-pointed,  battling,  vol- 
canic, developing  latent  force,  crystalizing  into  extreme  individuality — 
the  cross  of  crucifixion — when  the  law  of  reaction  obtained,  tending  to 
centrality  again — the  leveling  down  of  mountains — the  leveling  up  of 
valleys,  encircling  all  in  harmony. 

Religion  is  but  the  laws  of  nature  spiritualized — love  married  to  sci- 
ence— the  angel  of  heaven  acting  in  practical  life.  Religion  dates  in 
the  golden  circle — in  the  tropics — the  India  of  love.  Have  you  noticed 
that  civilization  began  there,  and  veered  northward  to  be  crystalized 
into  sparkling  intellectuality  by  a  colder  climate ;  spreading  itself  over 
Europe,  thence  westward  in  parallels  to  America,  across  the  Pacific  to 
Asia,  and  gradually  settling  back,  laden  with  mental  riches,  to  the 
tropics  again  ?  All  things  move  in  circles.  India  is  the  birth-place 
of  religion — the  Eden — the  conjugal  circle  of  soul.  How  appropriate, 
then,  is  the  circle  to  represent  her  parental  relations  with  all  races, 
governments,  and  improvements !     The  embryonic  religion  of  mankind, 


THE   HOROSCOPE.  IX 

India  is  seen  in  the  spirit  world  by  the  sign  of  the  circle-  -full-orbed 
and  golden. 

Egypt  is  the  child  of  India,  less  aflfectional  in  faith,  but  more  astro- 
nomical, philosophical,  and  practical — the  daughter,  whose  name  is 
Science,  The  Ganges  and  the  Himalayas  are  so  vast,  clouded,  mystic, 
they  inspire  awe,  and,  in  so  sunny  a  clime,  unfold  an  exuberant  con- 
templation of  soul — a  poetic  religious  idealism  that  enchants  every 
sense  and  imparadises  every  thought.  Egypt  is  tamer,  not  so  melan- 
choly, not  so  vast  and  spiring,  not  so  cloudy  and  luxurious,  not  so  mel- 
low and  musical.  The  Nile,  mysterious  as  the  Ganges,  alluvial  and 
inundating,  is  not  so  sweetly  imbosomed  in  the  shadows  of  great 
mountains  and  protective  banyan  forests.  Egypt  has  more  burning 
sands,  more  raging  sea  from  the  north  vexed  with  storms,  more  poison 
in  her  desert  winds.  Hence,  her  inhabitants  have  more  angularity  of 
character.  She  is  spiritually  tropical ;  but  nature's  battles  make  her 
contentious,  intellectual,  fiercely  just,  the  manufacturer  of  an  implaca- 
ble hell,  and  of  a  delightful  Elysium  across  the  stormy  lake  of  death. 
She  is,  therefore,  the  circle  geometrically  changed  into  a  right-angle- 
triangle.  She  is  three-sided,  pyramidal,  with  stars  for  heart-beats. 
Egypt  courting  science  from  very  love,  her  horoscopic  sign  in  the  spirit 
world  is  the  right-angle-triangle. 

But  there  must  be  body  to  this  trinity ;  the  perfect  individuality  of 
principle.  Palestine,  whose  people  were  born  and  disciplined  in  the 
slaveries  of  Egypt,  is  a  little  colder,  variegated,  and  on  a  smaller  scale. 
The  Mediterranean,  dashing  with  awful  roar  against  her  shores,  is  the 
warning  voice  of  the  great  Jehovah,  angry  at  the  sins  of  his  chosen 
children.  The  Jordan  is  swift  and  acrid.  The  valleys  and  brooks  are 
contracted.  Horeb  and  Sinai  and  Lebanon  are  wrapt  in  jealous  soli- 
tudes. The  Egyptio-codes  of  Moses,  intensified  to  rigorous  penalty, 
enforce  order  and  racial  nationality.  What,  then,  is  the  Jewish  char- 
acter ?  Selfish,  arrogant,  narrow,  jealous,  and  arbitrary.  Judaism,  spir- 
itualized, is  Pauline  Christianity — the  aggressive  sword — the  Protestant- 
ism of  India — the  hody  in  the  triune  development — the  religious  body 
for  tho  3ouI  of  Egypt  and  the  spirit  of  India.     What,  then,  is  the  sign 


X  THE   HOROSCOPE. 

of  CliristiaDity  in  the  immortal  horoscope  ?  The  cross,  indicative  of 
doctrine,  of  individuality,  of  progress  towardi  the  circle  of  the 
Harmonial  Philosophy. 

So  religion,  like  every  other  law  of  life,  repeats  itself;  moves  in  cir- 
cles j  inversely  from  circles  in  incarnations  to  angles  and  crosses,  and 
from  these  back  to  the  circle,  spirally  climbing  round  and  round  in 
infinite  progression.  Nothing,  then,  is  lost.  All  that  India  gives,  or 
Egypt,  or  Judea,  or  America,  are  translated  into  newness  of  life,  as  the 
inheritance  of  the  ages  to  come. 

The  Pastophora,  thus  set  in  prism,  is  this  beautiful  trinity  expressed 
— all  religions  essentially  comprised  in  its  circle  of  philosophy,  dividing 
and  sparkling  with  angular  points  of  electric  thought,  and  blending 
again  in  rainbowed  drops  for  oceanic  love. 

Read  then,  0  world  searching  for  light,  carefulJy  read  these  breathing 
pages,  redolent  with  words  that  burn ;  and  then  rank  the  book  where 
it  belongs,  with  the  standards  of  Spiritualism,  and,  with  gratitude, 
thank  Grod  and  take  courage  under  the  glory  that  flashes  from  all 
inspired  pens,  and  throbs  in  all  honest  bosoms,  bared  so  freely  to  the 
arrows  of  persecution  as  a  bulwark  of  defence  to  more  spiritual  and 
angelic  generations  coming. 

If  this  volume  severs  a  mental  chain,  frees  a  creed-crushed  soul,  piucks 
a  thorn  from  a  human  pathway,  planting  a  rose  there,  sheds  a  kindling 
ray  of  light  upon  a  pilgrim's  path,  or  causes  even  a  tremulous  smile  to 
brighten  the  brow  of  sorrow  and  suflfering,  then  is  the  author  satisfied — 
aye,  richly  blessed,  for  he  finds  his  highest  happiness  and  sweetest 
blessing  in  blessing  others, 

J.  0.  BARRETT. 

New  Year's  Day,  1869. 


y 


ECTURE      I, 


3pirit    of    the    Present     Age. 


p 


HAPTEf^     I. 


SPIRIT   OF  THE  AOE 


«*  All  grim  and  soiled,  and  brown  with  Um, 
I  saw  a  Strong  One,  in  his  wrath. 
Smiting  the  godless  shrines  of  man 
Along  his  path." 

•*  My  soul  is  not  a  palace  of  the  past, 
Where  priest-worn  creeds,  like  Rome's  gray  Senate,  quakei 
Hearing  afar  the  vandal's  trumpet  hoarse. 
The  time  is  ripe  and  rotten  ripe  for  change; 
Then  let  it  come  !" 

Progress  is  God's  right  hand  angel !  It  is  the  Christ  in 
our  midst,  working  by  methods  mystic  as  the  pictured  sym- 
bols in  the  Patmos  Visions.  Its  laws  diverse,  inverse,  and 
often  unfathomable,  ever  act  to  the  same  divine  purpose  of 
physical  refinement  and  spiritual  unfoldment. 

Causation  is  infinite.  Change  is  a  necessity  of  nature. 
Essential  Spirit  —  that  all-interfusing  force-presence,  fi.lling 
immensity,  and  being  causative,  does  and  eternally  wiU  act 
upon  matter. 

Something  from  nothing,  a  self-evident  absurdity,  there  are 
no  absolute  creations  in  the  universe,  only  new  and  higher 
formations.  Spirit  and  matter  both  eternal ;  spiritual  sub- 
stance in  connection  with  physical  substance  in  its  various 
gradations,  constitute  one  co-eternal  duality. 

Spirit  is  independent  of  matter  relative  to  mere  existence; 
yet  dependent  upon  it  for  its  manifestations. 

13 


14  DOCTRINES    OF   SPIRITUALISTS. 

The  God-principle  or  Divine  Energy  immanent  in,  and  c  3n- 
nected  with,  the  dual  forms  of  matter  and  spirit,  must  ev6r 
produce  motion,  disintegration,  evolution  and  pulsations 
towards  perfection.  The  old  dies  that  the  new  may  sing  of 
birth,  maturity,  victory. 

The  past  with  its  lengthened  shadows  and  suns,  its  defeats 
and  triumphs,  was  well;  so  were  frightful  explosions,  during 
the  old  Plutonian  period.  Fossils  in  silurian  rocks  were 
deeply  significant  as  treasured  histories  of  primeval  life, 
bespeaking  higher  organized  existence;  and  so  even  the 
possible  of  man,  as  prince  of  immortal  nature,  during  com- 
ing geologic  epochs. 

"  All  bloom  is  fruit  of  death  ; 
Creation's  soul  thrives  from  decay, 
And  nature  feeds  on  ruin;  the  big  earth 
Summers  in  rot,  and  harvests  through  the  frost, 
To  fructify  the  world ;  the  mortal  now 
Is  pregnant  with  spring-flowers  to  come ; 
And  death  is  seed-time  of  eternity  I  " 

It  is  folly,  maddened  by  bigotry,  to  ask  the  thinkers  of  the 
nineteenth  century  to  hold  the  flag-staiFs  of  the  ancients. 
Parchments  are  fixtures.  While  neither  constitutions  nor 
creeds  "-row,  souls  do.  As  well  strive  to  fill  our  arteries  with 
the  crimson  blood  that  coursed  the  veins  of  Jewish  patriarchs 
and  priests,  as  to  appropriate  their  thoughts,  commandments, 
or  religious  experiences,  forgetful  of  the  living  present, 
hoping  thereby  to  have  our  spiritual  life  vitalized.     Shall  we 

"  Load  our  young  thought  with  the  iron  shirt, 
By  bigots  raked  from  some  Judean  grave-yard's  dirt  ?  " 

The  yesterdays  are  gone;  let  them  go  !  The  good  of  the 
past  preserved  and  reconstructed,  Americans  have  to  do  with 
the  to-days,  and  a  brightening  future  stretching  in  mellowed 
radiance,  deepening  in  significance,  gorgeous  with  hope,  and 
prophetic  of  a  coming  Eden,  whose  crowning  glories  shall 
be  harmonial  men  and  women,  being  laws  unto  themselves. 
True,  the  present  strikes  its  ruots  back  into  the  past.     It  is 


SPIRIT    OF    THE    AGE.  15 

our  legacy ;  and,  so  far  as  it  speaks  truth  to  the  soul,  let  us  do 
homage  at  its  shrii  e. 

All  those  brave  souls,  Pythagoras,  Plato,  Anaxagoras, 
Confucius,  Jesus,  John,  and  others,  martyred  for  principle, 
greatly  advantaged  and  beautifully  enriched  the  succeeding 
ages  by  wise  utterances  that  have  streamed  in  golden  splen- 
dors down  to  the  present.  They  were  helps,  having  helped 
hummiity  ■  and  yet,  they  are  not  our  masters — not  infallible 
guides.  Wisdom  did  not  die  with  them,  and  therefore  they 
must  not  talk  to  us  authoritatively. 

Each  should  be  his  own  authority.  God  speaks  to  us  just 
as  frequently  and  fatherly  as  he  did  to  Jewish  seers.  Seeing 
in  every  valley  a  Jordan,  in  .every  sectarian  church  a  "dead 
sea,"  in  every  aspirational  heart  an  altar  of  worship,  in  every 
w^oodland  eminence  a  mount  of  ascension,  and  in  every 
child  an  embryo  angel,  what  special  need  of  Hebrew  bounty, 
styled  "  Revelation?  " 

Those  must  indeed  be  "babes  and  sucklings,"  who  will 
persist  in  partaking  of  manna — the  history  of  bread  nearly 
two  thousand  years  booked — and  dried  fruit  generally,  when 
spiritual  vineyards  are  clustering  with  grapes,  and  orchards 
are  bending  under  a  ripened  luxuriance,  and  inspirations, like 
benedictions,  are  coming  each  day  from  heavenly  realms. 

It  is  difficult  to  Jerusalemize  x\nglo  Saxons.  If  the  soul- 
lamp  would  burn  brightly,  illumining  the  living  now,  it  must 
be  lit  from  such  inspirational  fire-fountains  as  the  wants  of 
this  age  have  kindled.  Robes  may  have  been  well  for  Aaron, 
fox-chasiiig  for  Sampson,  grazing  for  Nebuchadnazzar,  tent- 
making  for  Paul,  locusts  for  the  Judean  Baptists,  and  manna 
for  Israelitish  wanderers ;  but  '*  give  us  this  day  our  daily 
bread ;"  that  is,  daily  truths  and  principles,  all  alive  with  love 
from  the  many-mansioned  homes  of  the  angels.  The  waster 
diould  be  the  builder;  and  the  hand  that  carries  the  "  torch 
for  the  burning,"  should  also  carry  the  hammer  for  building 
better.  Sectarian  churches,  doubtless,  are  partial  necessities, 
and  for  the  time  being,  well;  as  were  baptismal  waters  for 
John's  disciples;  but  give  us  the  baptism  of  the  Holy  Spirit; 


16  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

or  the  descending  divine  afflatus  from  celestial  hosts,  submerg- 
ing and  suffusing  our  natures  in  a  measureless  ocean  of  purity 
and  wisdom. 

The  revengeful,  repenting,  personal  God  of  Judaism  satis- 
fied the  demands  of  the  Hebrews.  They  could  grasp  no 
higher  conception  of  the  infinite  incarnate  life-principle  of 
the  universe.  It  still  satisfies  millions  of  conscientious 
churchmen,  with  more  zeal  than  knowledge,  who  strive  to 
fill  themselves  upon  the  mouldy  crumbs  that  fall  from  the 
oily  lips  of  ordained  Rip  Van  Winkles,  who  "  say "  theii 
prayers  instead  of  doing  them,  and  ^^ profess"  instead  of 
possess  the  Jivine  principles  of  the  absolute  religion. 

What  pining  I  what  leanness  and  lankness  even  in  liberal 
churches !  what  moanings  from  the  pulpits  over  "  bleeding 
Zion  !  "  what  quiet  slumberings  in  the  pews !  what  efforts  to 
make  special  engagements  with  God  during  winter-seasons 
for  *'  revivals  !  "  Oh  what  a  thin,  dry,  fleshless,  marvelously 
lifeless,  soulless  ''  Skeleton,"  is  Orthodoxy  !  E'umbers  bitterly 
feel  it  to  be  thus,  yet  cling  from  fear,  or  motives  of  policy, 
to  its  bleached  bones  and  encrusted  symbols.  Others,  good 
at  heart,  yet  timid,  fearing  the  loss  of  position,  continue  to 
preserve  their  ecclesiastical  connections,  faithfully  hugging 
their  theologically  "dead  mother's  breast!  " 

The  wisdom  of  importing  all  our  religion  from  Asia-Minor 
is  more  than  questionable,  since  God  is  as  present  with  us  as 
with  the  Asiatics,  inspiration  being  a  universal  in-breathing 
from  the  Infinite. 

<'  He  sends  his  teachers  unto  every  age, 
To  every  clime,  and  every  race  of  men." 

The  remembrance  of  corn  that  yellowed  in  Kearon's 
valle}  3,  the  milk  and  honey  that  flowed  in  the  lands  of 
Canaar.,  and  the  figs  and  pomgranates  that  reddened  around 
Olive's  mountain,  gladdening  the  disciples  of  the  I^azarene, 
can  not  satisfy  spiritual  hunger;  nor  can  the  Jewish  crude 
notions  of  retrogressive  demons  and  sacrifices  offered  a  per- 
sonal, local,  jealous  God,  satisfy  the  growing  desires  of  our 


SPIRIT    OF    THE    AGE.  17 

inmost  nature.  Church  doctrines  are  but  husks  to  spiritual 
consciousness.  John  Wesley,  in  an  inspired  moment,  said  : 
"  I  am  sick  of  opinions ;  give  us  good  works  and  the  faith 
of  practical  benevolence."  Scaffoldings  are  necessary  only 
during  the  processes  of  building ;  and  chaff,  after  the  ripening 
of  the  grain,  is  but  sport  for  the  winds  !  Why,  old  theology 
appears  about  as  pitiable  as  would  the  ancient  Hebrew 
method  of  treading  out  corn  beneath  the  hoofs  of  lazy  oxen, 
to  a  spirited  western  farmer  in  charge  of  a  modern  threshing 
machine. 

When  human  bodies  die,  sectarists  have  good  sense  enough 
to  bury  them  from  sight;  but  when  their  creeds  perish, 
becoming  as  offal  to  investigators,  they  strive  to  embalm 
and  preserve  them  beneath  gothic  piles  and  costly  cathe- 
drals, to  the  merriment  of  metaphysicians  and  the  almost 
infinite  sorrow  of  angels.  As  well  strive  to  bind  the  waters 
of  the  ocean  with  a  rope  of  sand,  or  hush  the  winds  fresh 
from  ^olus  hand,  as  to  bid  the  currents  of  free  thought 
cease  circulating  among  inquiring  masses  that  dare  to  assert 
their  independence.  Popes  and  priests  have  measurably 
been  shorn  of  their  power.  Century-mossed  systems  have 
lost  their  vitalizing  force,  and  creedal  ceremonies  have  become 
dull  and  irksome. 

The  great  throbbing  heart  of  humanity  calls  for  living 
inspirations,  and  greater,  grander  truths  fresh  from  the 
Father  and  the  angels  that  do  the  divine  will.  Emerson,  in 
an  address  to  the  Senior  Theological  class  at  Cambridge, 
said : 

"  It  is  my  duty  to  say  to  you,  that  the  need  was  never  greater  of  a 
new  revelation  than  now.  From  the  views  I  have  already  expressed, 
you  will  infer  the  sad  conviction  which  I  have,  I  believe  with  numbers, 
of  the  universal  decay  and  now  almost  death  of  faith  in  society.  The 
Soul  is  not  preached.  The  Church  seems  to  totter  to  its  fall — almost 
all  life  is  extinct.  I  think  no  man  can  go  with  his  thoughts  about  him 
into  one  of  our  churches,  without  feehng,  that  what  hold  the  public 
worship  once  had  on  man — is  gone,  or  going.  It  has  lost  its  grasp  on 
the  affections  of  the  good,  and  the  fears  of  the  bad.  The  prayers  and 
even  the  dogmas  of  our  church  are  wholly  isolated  from  anything  now 
extant  in  the  life  and  business  of  the  people." 

9 


18  ■  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

A  perfectly  vigorous  and  original  life,  founded  upon  the 
science  of  the  soul,  is  what  seems  fit  and  admirahlj  adapted 
to  the  genius  of  this  country,  now  freed  from  the  blight  of 
oppressive  institutions;  and  this  life-status  is  to  be  supreme, 
sure  as  physical  landscapes  are  reflected  in  individual  char- 
acter, as  climate  affects  religion. 

"Light!  more  light!''  relative  to  immortality,  the  soul's 
capacities  and  to  the  glories  of  an  infinite  future,  is  the 
demand  of  our  growing  humanity.  In  answer  thereto  the 
church  offers  us  "  faith  "  and  clerical  leading  strings,  sanc- 
tified by  custom,  telling  us  to  be  good,  submissive,  quiet 
"babes  in  Christ;  "  and  then,  just  over  Jordan,  we  shall  find 
the  jasper  city  paved  with  gold,  and  musical  with  saints 
serenading  "  the  Holy  One  of  Israel ! "  But  this  faith 
imparts  no  free,  spontaneous  energy.  It  soon  degenerates 
into  a  languishing  formality,  a  dry  cant,  a  narrowing  non- 
descript, an  inexpressible  churchianic  hybrid  between  life 
and  death,  as  "  revival "  confessions  demonstrate.  Faith  is 
elemental  in  the  human  mind,  but  this  ecclesiastic  faith,  devoid 
of  reason,  and  "  without  works,"  is  dead !  The  eccentric 
Carlyle  says,  that,  "just  in  the  ratio  that  knowledge  increases, 
faith  diminishes;  consequently,  those  that  know  the  most 
always  believe  the  least." 

The  age  demands,  not  aping  shadows,  gloved  gentry,  nor 
cowled  clergymen  fashioned  to  order  in  '*  Theological  Semi- 
naries," bewailing  the  sins  of  Greeks  and  Jews,  and  aiming 
arrows  of  rebuke  at  the  poor  Hittites  and  Moabites — not 
sluggish  conservatives  infected  with  stagnant,  deathly  torpor, 
staying  on  earth  as  do  oysters  in  their  bed,  praying  for  the 
Millennium,  because  they  then  hope  to  "  sit " — sit  under 
*'  ambrosial"  vines — fearing  to  brush  down  cobwebs  in  their 
temples  lest  the  roof  fall  in,  and  piously  opposing  the  "  new 
moon,"  out  of  a  profound  respect  for  the  old,  forgetting  the 
Carlylean  maxim,  that  the  "  old  skin  never  falls  from  the 
serpent  till  a  new  one  is  formed ;  "  but  it  demands  men  and 
women  enthusiastic  and  full-orbed,  who  see  in  every  soul  a 
possible  Christ,  in  every  life  a  symbol-thought  of  God,  in  every 


SPIRIT    OF    TUE    AGE.  19 

well-timed  bath  a  baptism,  in  every  day  a  Sabbath,  in  every 
house  a  living  temple,  and  in  every  heart  an  altar  of  worship 
whereon  the  fires  of  love  and  devotion  are  kept  as  incense 
continually  burning,  making  all  life's  hours  precious  like  the 
Eastern  tig-tree  that  bears  in  its  bosom  at  once  the  beauty  of  the 
early  bloom  and  the  matured  glory  of  most  delicious  fruitage — 
who  are  full  of  warm  blood,  deep  sympathies,  and  great 
moral  independence,  whose  arguments  against  home-sins 
hit,  whose  shots  tell,  eyes  flash,  words  convince,  lips  per- 
suade, and  inspirations  touch  the  heart's  best  affections, 
calling  down  sweet  love-baptisms  from  on  high — who  will 
speak  the  whole  truth,  as  they  see  it,  and  actualize  it  in  lives 
consecrated  to  divine  uses,  though  the  fire,  the  faggot,  and 
cross  are  in  full  view — who,  holy  and  rapt  and  mystic  at 
times,  as  John  of  Patmos  filled  with  ode,  rhapsody  and  lyric, 
uttering  from  the  depths  of  the  inner  consciousness  divine 
principles,  as  with  tongues  of  fire,  causing  them  to  sing 
through  the  corridors  of  the  soul's  memory-chambers,  awak- 
ening to  resurrectional  beatitude  all  those  finer  impulses  of 
kindness,  forgiveness,  and  devotion  to  the  right,  the  just,  the 
true,  and  the  beautiful,  that  slumber  in  the  sacred  heart  of 
our  common  brotherhood.  Then  will  the  kins^dom  of  God, 
SO  long  the  burden  of  prophecy  and  prayer,  become  as  prac- 
tical an  institution  as  it  is  progressive  on  earth — the  ideal  then 
being  realized  now — all  to  the  glory  of  our  divine  humanity. 

"  The  new  is  old,  the  old  is  new, 
The  cycle  of  a  change  sublime, 
Still  sweeping  through  I " 


Chaptei^  II. 


SPIRITUAL  RATIOS. 


"All  matter  is  God's  tongue, 
And  from  its  motion  God's  thoughts  are  sung. 
The  realms  of  space  are  the  octave  bars, 
And  the  music  notes  are  the  sun  and  stars." 

The  Infinite  Spirit  is  the  infinite  substance  of  the  universe, 
the  only  absolute  reality,  and  Nature,  as  a  garment,  is  the 
manifestation  of  this  reality  to  the  senses.  The  conscious 
human  spirit,  as  the  innermost  of  man,  is  an  essential  portion 
of  the  Infinite,  pure  and  eternal — a  divine  center — a  celestial 
compass  with  an  infinitude  of  points,  bearing  fixed  relations, 
when  in  conjunction  with  grosser  matter,  to  time  past,  present, 
and  future.  Time  is  not  a  thing  yer  se,  but  only  the  record 
of  a  series  of  impressions  made  upon  the  spiritual  sensorium. 

"All  are  but  parts  of  one  stupendous  whole, 
Whose  body  Nature  is,  and  God  the  soul." 

Each  thus  connected  with  all,  and  human  nature  the  same 
in  all  ages,  the  present  generation  has  much  to  do  in  turning 
to  good  account  the  gathered  experiences  of  the  past,  in 
finding  the  "  lost  arts,"  and  measuring  the  folly  and  wisdom 
of  those  ancient  eras,  though  grayed  with  countless  decades. 

Waves  of  progress,  moving  in  cycles,  continually  overlap — 
the  highest  reaching  the  shores,  and  there  writing  their 
thoughts  on  crystal  reams  and  defiant  rocks.  The  past,  then, 
with    its    long    shadows — symbols,    hieroglyphics,    poetry, 

20 


SPIRIT    OF    THE    AGE SPIRITUAL    RATIOS.  21 

paintings,  proverbs  and  rabbinical  lore — converges  in  the 
present.  Aye,  the  grand  old  past! — it  reaches  down  its 
multitudinous  hands  to  us  from  the  Atlantis,  from  India  and 
Egypt,  from  Syria,  Greece  and  Rome ;  from  bannered  cities 
long  sanded  from  sight;  from  ancient  temples  whose  golden 
gates  dazzled  like  suns;  from  old  Gothic  cathedrals  and 
Norman  castles  magnificent  even  in  ruins. 

Unto  us,  from  all  surrounding  zones,  worlds  and  realms, 
have  poured  the  streams  of  eternal  life.  Rock  and  ocean, 
storm  and  stars,  light  and  darkness,  saint  and  savage,  god 
and  demon,  with  the  boundless  and  fathomless  deeps  of 
undying  love,  have  all  contributed  to  make  up  our  physical, 
mental  and  spiritual  organizations.  To  every  point  of  the 
compass  in  the  infinite  domain  of  space,  may  souls  send  out 
their  feelers  and  meet  a  glad  response. 

Our  particled  bodies  may  exchange  with  the  minerals,  the 
soils,  the  fruits;  our  spiritual  structures,  with  the  fine  ethere- 
alized  essences  and  ultimates  that  infill  the  surroundino- 
regions;  while  the  deific  within,  through  aspiration  and 
effort,  may  continually  come  into  diviner  rapport  with  the 
great,  beating,  throbbing,  loving  heart — the  Infinite  Soul  of 
the  universe — God. 

This  true,  the  past,  with  its  deep  rich  veins  of  experience, 
its  half-buried  yet  glittering  treasures,  and  its  inexhaustible 
tomes  of  classic  riches,  is  to  us  in  value  above  what  human 
speech  can  express,  painter  transfer  to  canvas,  or  author 
describe.  The  legitimate  work  of  the  historian  is  to  unveil 
and  present  to  the  people  of  to-day  a  speaking  panorama  of 
the  extinguished  ages.  This  measureless  period  termed  the 
imst,  when  organized  and  comprehended  in  its  broadest  sense, 
rounds  up  as  the  great  drama  of  humanity — as  the  living  epic 
of  human  progress — the  forecourt  of  a  more  transcendent 
futurity. 

The  historian,  however,  is  not  the  bare  fact-gatherer. 
Mere  facts  may  be  as  devoid  of  scientific  value  as  fictions.  To 
reach  truth  there  must  be  a  selection  of  well-attested  facts, 
with  their  just  moral  value  affixed.     These,  put   into  the 


22  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

crucible  of  reason,  systematized,  grouped  in  order,  and 
organized  in  accordance  with  the  best  methods  of  philo- 
sophic research,  must  also  be  critically  weighed  with  reference 
to  their  producing  causes.  This  done,  they  naturally 
crystalize  into,  harmonize  with,  and  help  constitute  truth. 

While  many  spirit  ripples  have  danced  upon  the  sea  of 
progress,  three  mighty  waves  have  loomed  up  on  the  ocean 
of  the  ages — ancient,  mediaeval  and  modern  Spiritualism. 
The  first,  shedding  its  kindling  glories  in  India,  Egypt,  China 
and  adjoining  nations,  threw  such  an  effulgence  of  baptisma. 
beauty  over  the  more  cultured  of  those  earlier  civilizations, 
that  all  the  subsequent  declining  eras  were  illuminated  even 
down  to  the  birth  of  the  lN"azarene.  Mediaeval  Spiritualism, 
dating  from  the  advent  of  Jesus,  that  eminent  Judean  Spirit- 
ualist, enriched  the  Platonic  thinkers  of  Alexandria,  enno- 
bled the  statesmen  of  Greece,  quickened  the  orators  of  Rome, 
encircled  in  light  the  footsteps  of  seers  and  martyrs,  pierced 
with  scattered  sunbeams  the  gloom  of  the  dark  ages,  inspired 
those  old  reformers,  and  tinged  with  a  divine  brightness  the 
progressive  movements  that  marked  nearly  twenty  centuries 
preced  ug  the  "  Kochester  Rappingsl"  This  last  spiritual 
wave  id  familiar  to  us  all. 


ECTURE     II 


/ 


u. 


NCIENT      filSTORIC       SPIRITUALISM 


Jl^HAPTEI^    III. 


15DIAN. 

** Searching  ancient  records  lately 
In  a  dusky  nook  we  found 
An  old  volume  grand  and  stately, 
\i  on  clasped  and  parch  t^ient  bound. 

"The  five  hundred  uiiliiou  Brahminic  and  Buddhist  believers  hold 
all  the  gods,  men,  demons,  and  various  grades  of  animated  life 
occupying  this  innumerable  array  of  worlds  compose  one  cosmic  family." 

India !  author  of  races — birth-place  of  art,  science,  sculp- 
ture, fragrant  with  the  lotus — dreamy  with  emotions  and 
aspirations  kindled  by  the  warmth  of  tropic  suns  !  Mother 
of  religions,  India  abounded  with  the  poetic,  the  visionary, 
the  spiritual. 

Multiform  are  the  evidences  of  a  conscious  communion 
between  mortals  and  the  inhabitants  of  the  spirit  world, 
blossoming  along  the  borders  of  Time's  earlier  mornings. 
All  things,  from  atoms  to  astral  worlds,  move  in  spirals — 
cycles  being  the  subjects  of  law. 

*'A  spiral  winds  from  the  worlds  to  the  suns. 
And  every  star  that  shines 
In  the  path  of  degrees  forever  runs, 
And  the  spiral  octave  climbs." 

Nations,  as  men,  are  born,  grow,  mature,  and  die ;  or  they 
ascend  and  descend,  as  sea  waves  rise  and  fall.  There  were 
golden  ages  with  heroes,  poets  and  scholars,  thousands  upon 

25 


26  DOCTRINES  OF  SPIRITUALISTS. 

thousands  of  years  before  the  reputed  Adam  ate  the  "fur- 
bidden  fruit"  that  mellowed  along  the  banks  af  the  Euphra- 
tes. Plato,  in  the  Timmaeus,  speaks  of  a  vast  island,  larger 
than  Lybia  and  Asia  combined,  that,  nine  thousand  years 
before  his  time,  had  its  kings,  priests,  soldiers,  arts,  guardian 
gods  and  goddesses.  This  thickly-peopled  isle,  or,  more  pro- 
perly, continent,  owing  to  a  fearful  earthquake  or  some  other 
violent  concussion  of  nature,  sank  in  a  single  night  into  the 
ocean  and  disappeared  forever. 

Le  Can,  an  eminent  Mongolian  scholar,  personally  assured 
us  that  the  Chinese  measure  time  by  dynasties;  that  their 
sacred  historical  works,  extending  back  in  a  line  forty-four 
thousand  years,  contain  many  accounts  of  commerce  ceasing, 
because  of  the  sinking  of  large  islands  and  the  rising  of 
immense  continents  from  the  ocean's  depths.  Among  the 
most  prominent  of  the  great  nations  of  old  whose  footprints 
were  encircled  in  the  light  of  spiritual  phenomena  and  inspi- 
rational truths,  uttered  by  seers,  seeresses  and  oracles,  we 
mention  Egypt,  China,  India,  Syria  and  Persia.  These 
either  carved  their  gospels  in  symbols  and  hieroglyphics,  or 
penned  them  on  scrolls — Yedas  and  Avestas. 

That  profound  linguist,  Miiller,  of  All  Souls'  College, 
Oxford,  says,  "Every  learned  man  knows  that  the  Hebrew  was 
not,  as  Jerome  and  other  Church  Fathers  taught,  the  oldest 
or  primitive  language  of  mankind."  The  Sanscrit  of  the 
old  Hindoos  was  a  much  more  ancient  and  a  far  more  perfect 
language.  This  was  in  its  full  flush  of  glory  more  than  five 
thousand  years  ago. 

Even  Sir  William  Jones  awards  to  some  books,  now  extant 
in  Sanscrit,  an  antiquity  of  four  and  five  thousand  years. 
Rev.  Mr.  Maurice,  as  quoted  by  Higgins,  thinks  the  Bhagavat 
Gita,  so  marvellously  rich  in  thought  relating  to  the  immor- 
tality of  the  soul  and  pre-existence,  was  written  over  four 
thousand  years  since.  That  fine  Scotch  scholar.  Lord  Mon- 
boddo,  wrote  in  1792,  that  the  "language  of  the  ancient 
Brahmins  of  India  was  a  richer  and  in  every  respect  a  finer 


ANCIENT    HISTORIC    SPIRITUALISM  —  INDIAN.  27 

laiiffuaore  than  even  the  Greek  of  Homer."  Another  Euro- 
pean  scholar  of  great  renown  says  the  Sanscrit  was  a  written 
and  spoken  language  hundreds  of  years  before  Abraham 
appeared  on  the  plains  of  Shinar,  and  long  before  the  Hebrew 
language  had  an  existence. 

M.  Ernest  Renan,  in  his  history  of  the  "Shemitic  lan- 
guages," says:  ^'  The  birth-place  oi philosophy  is  India,  amidst 
an  inquisitive  race,  deeply  pre-occupied  by  the  search  after 
the  secret  of  all  things;  but  the  psalm  and  the  prophecy,  the 
wisdom  concealed  in  riddles  and  symbols,  the  pure  hymn,  the 
revealed  book,  are  the  inheritance  of  the  theocratic  race  of 
the  Shemites — Assyrians,  Chaldees,  Arabians,  Hebrews  and 
cognate  tribes."  He  further  adds:  ''The  Shemite  race  has 
neither  the  elevation  of  Spiritualism,  known  only  to  India,  nor 
the  feeling  for  measure  and  perfect  beauty  bequeathed  by 
Grreece  to  the  l!Teo-Latin  nations." 

It  is  generally  conceded  by  all  learned  Orientals  that  a 
large  portion  of  the  writings  of  the  Brahmins  is  anterior  to 
any  part  of  our  Bible.  In  style  and  spirit  they  are  eminently 
superior,  abounding  in  the  grandest  conceptions  of  Deity, 
and  in  communications  from  the  gods,  demi-gods,  manes  and 
spirits.  The  Yedas,  Puranas,  Upanishads,  Rig- Veda  Sanhita, 
Bhagavat-Gita,  Ramayanna,  etc.,  are  full  of  myths  inlaid 
with  spiritual  thoughts  and  sublime  spiritual  ideas,  such  as 
"Spirit  moving  upon  chaos  and  fashioning  forms" — the 
"girdles  and  spheres"  encircling  the  earth — the  "power  of 
the  gods  to  clothe  themselves  in  a  luminous  ether"  and 
appear  to  mortals — -"the  celestial  state  of  eighty-eight  thou- 
sand saints,"  the  holiest  of  the  Brahmins,  and  their  descent 
to  guard  cities  and  guide  the  young.  The  Puranas  also 
describe  the  oblations  offered  and  the  methods  devised  to 
dispossess  "malignant  spirits  and  enemies  of  the  deities." 
(Yishnu  Purana,  p.  329). 

Long  before  the  patriarchs  pitched  their  tents  under  Syrian 
skies,  long  before  Moses  saw  the  tables  of  stone  on  the  Mount, 
long  before  the  oldest  Hebrew  prophets  were  inspired  to 
sound  the  alarm  in  Judean  mountains,  there  were  millions 


28  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

of  Spiritualists,  prophets,  3'Ogees,  sages,  seers  and  mediums, 
in  India.  What  is  more,  Abraham  himself  was,  without  the 
least  doubt,  a  Brahmin.  The  scholarlj^  Higgins  proves  this 
beyond  a  cavil  in  his  very  labored  work,  the  "  Anacalypsis." 

Terah,  the  father  of  Abraham,  came  from  an  Eastern 
country  called  Ur.  Higgins  clearly  proves  that  this  Ur  of 
the  Chaldees  was  in  India,  that  portion  of  the  country  lying 
on  the  river  Jumna  and  now  called  Uri,  or  Ur.  Abbe  Du- 
bois states  that  the  Hindoos  in  their  earliest  times  had  no 
images.  They  worshipped  the  one  God  as  Divinity  in  duality, 
positive  and  negative — father  and  mother.  Abraham  refused 
to  worship  the  female  principle  in  the  Godhead.  He  became 
a  Protestant  Hindoo,  a  wandering  pilgrim,  and  accordingly 
emigrated  from  Ur  in  India  to  Haran  in  Assyria ;  from 
thence  to  Phoenicia,  and  finally  into  Egypt,  nearly  2,000  B. 
C,  in  consequence  of  a  terrible  famine;  and  in  all  his  jour- 
neyings  he  took  with  him  the  belief  in  and  practice  of  the 
mysteries  and  spirit  communion  he  had  been  taught  in  India. 
Therefore  we  read  in  the  Old  Testament  that  *'the  Lord  (& 
spiritual  being)  appeared  to  him  on  the  plains  of  Mamre.'" 
Also  when  he  sat  in  the  door  of  his  tent,  he  lifted  up  his  eyes 
and  looked,  and  lo,  three  men  stood  before  him;  and  when  he 
saw  them — that  is,  these  three  spirits — "he  bowed  himself 
towards  the  ground." 

The  history  of  the  Phoenicians  and  the  Assyrians  (Assur- 
ians  or  Assoors  from  India)  has  reached  us  only  in  fragments, 
and  these  through  that  voluminous  author  Sanchoniathan,  that 
lived  long  prior  to  Moses ;  and  Berosus,  the  Babylonian  histo- 
rian. Porphyry  says,  Sanchoniathan  received  nmch  of  his 
information  from  Hierombalus,  a  priest  of  lao,  that  is,  Jeho- 
vah; accordingly,  with  deep  insight,  the  sect  of  learned  Gnos- 
tics taught,  that  this  lao,  or  Jehovah  of  the  Jew^s,  was  the  ^^name 
of  an  angel.^'  This  shows  that  Sanchoniathan  was  a  mystic 
and  medium,  as  well  as  historian.  It  is  clear  from  both 
Sanchoniathan  and  Berosus,  that  the  Phoenicians,  full  five 
thousand  years  since,  engaged  in  an  extensive  commerce. 
Modern  exhumations  and  discoveries  in  Peru,  Mexico  and 


ANCIENT   niS:ORIC    SPIRITUALISM  —  INDIAN.  29 

other  portions  of  the  American  continent,  obviously  demon- 
strate, as  shown  by  symbols  of  sun-worship  carved  upon 
rocks,  that  they  pushed  their  shipping  all  along  our  western 
sea-coasts.  Wherever  they  anchored  they  left  their  ideas 
of  magic  and  spirit  intercourse. 

♦*  Light 
"Sprung  from  the  deep,  and  from  her  native  East, 
To  journey  thro'  the  airy  gloom  began." 

In  Pococke's  "India  in  Greece,"  the  author,  from  a 
translation  of  documents  existing  in  the  Sanscrit,  proves 
conclusively  that, 

"In  the  great  conflict  between  Brahminical  and  Buddhistic  sects  in 
India,  the  latter  being  defeated,  emigrated  in  large  bands,  and  colonized 
other  countries.  It  is  demonstrated  in  this  work  that  the  principal 
locality  from  which  this  emigration  took  place  was  Affghanistan  and 
North-western  India;  that  the  Indian  tribes  proceeding  thence  colo- 
nized Gi-reece,  Egypt,  Palestine  and  Italy ;  that  they  also  produced  the 
great  Scandinavian  families,  the  early  Britons  inclusive;  and  that  they 
carried  with  them  to  their  new  settlements  the  evidences  of  their 
civilization,  their  arts,  institutions  and  religion." 

Herodotus  informs  us  that,  in  the  lofty  tower  of  Belus  in 
Babylon,  there  was  a  consecrated  room  upon  the  summit  in 
which  was  an  oracular  gold  table;  and  here  a  woman  of 
priestly  office  stayed  each  night  to  obtain  information  from 
the  presiding  deity.  A  similar  apartment  adorned  the 
Temple  of  Jove  at  Thebes,  in  Egypt,  and  other  Nilotic 
cities.  These  media,  virtuous  in  habit,  accustomed  to 
fasting  and  bathing,  and  other  purifications,  before  divining 
or  conversing  with  tlie  gods,  to  give  intbrmation,  were 
required,  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of  the  country,  to 
occupy  those  temples  the  night  previous  to  the  entrancement. 
This  more  thoroughly  magnetized  them.  The  teachings 
then  brought  from  the  world  of  spirits  were  considered 
sacred. 

"I  have  seen,"  said  ApoUonius,  "  the  Brahmins  of  India,  dwelling  on 
the  earth  and  not  on  the  earth,  living  fortified  without  fortifications, 
possessing  nothing  and  yet  everything."  This  he  spoke  somewhat  enig- 
matically; 1j  it  Damis  (the  companion  of  his  journey  in  India)    sajs 


30  DOCTRINES    OF   SPIRITUALISTS. 

they  sleep  upon  the  ground,  but  that  the  earth  furnishes  them  with  a 
grassy  couch  of  whatever  plants  they  desire.  That  he  himself  had  seen 
them,  elevated  two  cubits  above  the  surface  of  the  earth,  walk  in  the 
air !  not  for  the  purpose  of  display,  which  was  quite  foreign  to  the 
character  of  the  men;  but  because  whatever  they  did,  elevated,  in 
common  with  the  sun,  above  the  earth,  would  be  more  acceptable  to 
that  deity.  *  *  *  Having  bathed,  they  formed  a  choral  circle, 
having  Tarchas  for  their  coryphaeus,  and  striking  the  earth  with  their 
divining  rods,  it  rose  up,  no  otherwise  than  does  the  sea  under  the 
power  of  the  wind,  and  caused  them  to  ascend  into  the  air.  Meanwhile 
they  continued  to  chant  a  hymn  not  unlike  the  paean  of  Sophocles,  which 
is  sung  at  Athens  in  honor  of  ^sculapius."  (Philostrat.  Vita 
Apollon.     Tyanens.  Lib.  iii.  c.  15,  17.) 

Without  the  light  of  Spiritualism,  the  above  statements 
can  be  regarded  in  no  other  sense  than  chimeras  of  heated 
imagination  in  an  age  of  superstition;  but  now  they  appear 
as  embodied  facts  traceable  to  causes  which  our  philosophy 
analyzes.  As  a  common  magnet  will  lift  up  a  piece  of  steel, 
so  by  spirit  attraction  did  Jesus  walk  upon  the  sea;  and  as  a 
table,  or  other  object  by  invisible  hands,  under  the  same 
law,  is  carried  above  the  heads  of  the  spiritual  circle,  so  were 
the  Brahmins  of  India  floated  in  the  air,  which  many  a 
medium  to-day  can  testify  is  true.  How  beautiful  is  history 
under  the  light  of  Spiritualism!  We  seem  now  to  feel  the 
very  breath  and  heart-beats  of  those  olden  seers ! 


JZhaptrb^  IV. 


EGYPTIAN. 


"The  Egyptian  soul  sailed  o'er  the  skyey  sea 
In  ark  of  crystal,  manned  by  beamy  gods, 
To  drag  the  deeps  of  space  and  net  the  stars, 
Where,  in  their  nebulous  shoals,  they  share  the  void, 
And  through  old  Night's  Typhonian  blindness  shine." 

♦*01d  sphinxes  lift  their  countenances  bland, 
Athwart  the  river-sea  and  sea  of  sand." 

•'Those  mystic,  stony  volumes  on  the  walls  long  writ, 
Whose  sense  is  late  revealed  to  searching  modern  wit.** 

If  there  is  a  charmed  country  beneath  the  bending  skies, 
it  is  Egypt — land  of  the  iTile  and  the  Pyramids,  of  the  Pha- 
raohs and  the  Ptolemies — land  where  art  and  science  gloried 
in  splendid  achievements  before  our  historic  records,  and 
whose  powerful  d^masties  held  sway  for  long  generations 
over  fertile  valleys  and  mighty  cities.  Thebes,  the  hundred 
gated,  Heliopolis  with  its  magnificent  temples,  Memphis  with 
its  shining  palaces  and  evergreen  gardens,  left  memorials  so 
wondrous  that  the  men  of  to-day  are  attracted  thither — to 
Luxor  and  Carnak,  to  the  avenues  of  sphinxes  and  the 
summits  of  the  pyramids. 

Egypt,  whose  mystic  hierophants  vied  with  the  gymnoso« 
phists  of  India — whose  "lost  arts"  have  never  yet  beer 
discovered — whose  learning 

"Uttered  its  oracles  sublime 
Before  the  Olympiads,  in  the  dew 
And  dusk  of  early  time," 

31 


32  DOCTRINES    OF   SPIRITUALISTS. 

had  u  jivilizatioii  more  than  five  thousaud  years  ago,  which, 
in  some  respects,  was  in  advance  of  ours  to-day.  In  this 
remote  time  none  were  admitted  to  judicial  offices  save  men 
of  integrity  and  great  erudition.  The  bench  consisted  of 
thirty  judges,  ten  chosen  from  each  of  the  three  greater  cities, 
Thebes,  Memphis  and  Heliopolis.  Being  duly  elected,  they 
were  paid  by  the  State.  Counsel  was  employed  and  justice 
dispensed  gratuitously  to  all.  Thus  rights  were  as  accessible 
to  the  poor  as  to  the  rich.  In  judicial  administration,  what  a 
lesson  this  to  Americans  so  given  to  boasting  and  blundering 
in  their  selection  of  officers !  *'  The  very  spirit  of  their  laws," 
says  Wilkinson,  "was  to  give  protection  and  assistance  to 
the  oppressed;  and  everything  that  tended  to  promote  an 
unbiassed  judgment  was  peculiarly  commended  by  the  Egyp- 
tian sages."  Is  it  strange,  then,  that  Abraham,  the  Patriarch, 
journeyed  down  into  Egypt;  that  P^^thagoras  spent  tw^enty- 
two  years  among  her  priests  and  seers;  that  Moses  was 
learned  in  the  "wisdom  of  the  Egyptians,"  and  Solon,  the 
great  lawgiver  of  Greece,  was  taught  that  the  Greeks  of  his 
time  were  in  philosophy  but  children  ? 

Through  all  the  palmy  days  of  Egypt's  grandeur,  Spirit- 
ualism, in  some  form,  was  the  universal  belief  The  more 
wise  and  profound  had  it  under  their  special  supervision. 
One  of  her  most  ancient  seers  stated,  that  "this  earth  was 
surrounded  by  aerial  circles  of  ether,  and  that  in  these  ethef 
regions  the  souls  of  the  dead  lived  and  guarded  mortals." 
Hermes  taught  "that  this  visible  is  but  a  picture  of  the 
invisible  world,  wherein,  as  in  a  portrait,  things  are  not  truly 
seen." 

Herodotus  mentions  a  celebrated  Egyptian  king  who 
descended  to  the  mansions  of  the  dead,  and,  after  some  stay 
m  those  spirit  realms,  returned  to  light.  The  anniversary 
of  this  return  was  held  as  a  sacred  festal  day  by  the  ancient 
Egyptians,  as  Christians  hold  feasts  and  fasts. 

Strabo  states  that  in  the  temi^le  of  Serapis  at  Canopus, 
"great  worship  was  performed;  many  miraculous  works 
were  wrought,  which  the  most  eminent  men  believed  and 


ANCIENT  HISTOEIC  SPIRITUALISM — EGYPTIAN.  ^53 

practiced,  while  others  devoted  themselves  to  the  sacred  sleep'' 
— that  is,  tlie  unconscious  trance.  The  consecrated  temple  at 
/Uexandria  was  still  more  famous  for  its  oracles,  "sacred  sleep," 
and  the  healing  of  invalids. 

In  memory  of  ^Memnon,  sometimes  called  by  the  Egyptians 
Amenophis,  a  great  ruler,  wiiose  mother  w^as  Cissiene,  and 
wlio  laid  the  foundation  of  Susa,  there  was  erected  a  famous 
statue  at  Thebes  that  gave  melodious  sounds  when  first  struck 
by  the  sun's  morning  rays.  Both  spirit  voices  and  spirit 
music  were  heard  issuing  from  this  Theban  statue  for  hundi'eds 
of  years.  Greek  travellers  affirm  positively  that  they  heard 
this  music  even  as  late  as  their  own  day.  It  was  evidently 
produced  upon  the  same  principle  of  voices  heard  in  haunted 
houses.  Strabo,  ^lius  Gallus,  Demetrius,  and  other  distin- 
guished characters,  testify  to  having  listened  to  those  melodious 
sounds  in  the  early  hours  of  morning.  Those  electric  sun- 
flashes  produced  just  the  requisite  conditions  in  the  statue  for 
musical  manifestations.  Upon  a  colossal  column  of  Memnon, 
rashly  broken  by  Cambyses,  carved  in  Greek  and  Latin,  testi- 
fying that  the  writers-  heard  the  heavenly  voice  at  the  first 
dawn  of  day,  are  two  inscriptions,  one  of  which  reads  as  follows: 
"/,  PuUius  Balbisues,  heard  the  divine  voice  of  Memnon  or 
Phamenoph.  I  caws  in  company  with  the  Empress  Sahina,  at 
the  first  hour  of  the  sun's  course,  the  15th  year  of  the  reign  of 
Hadrian,  the  24ith  day  of  Athyr,  the  2Dth  of  the  month  of 
November." 

Hermes,  who  said,  "creation  is  not  a  generation  of  life,  but 
a  production  of  things  to  sense,  and  making  them  manifest," 
thorouglily  understood  the  philosophy  of  magnetic  sleep  and 
trance.  While  the  winged  staff  had  a  symbolic  signification, 
the  magic  staff  was  most  in  use  in  his  time.  In  the  fifth  book 
of  the  Odyssey,  we  have  these  lines: 

**  Forth  sped  Hermes,  and  under  his  feet  he  bound  his  amhrosial  sandals, 
Then  taking  his  staff,  with  which  he  the  eyelids  of  mortals 
Closes  at  will,  and  the  sleeper's  ^vill  re-awakens." 

Montfaucon  and  M.  Denin,  describing  the  temples  of  the 
Upper  Egypt,  clearly  demonstrates  that  psychology,  mesmeric 


84  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

control,  and  clairvoyance  were  well  understood  by  E2;ypt'8 
scholars  and  priests,  and  that  through  these  methods,  with 
spirit  intercourse,  they  received  their  knowledge  of  the  unseen 
world  and  the  art  of  healing,  which  they  deemed  prudent  to 
withhold  from  the  masses.  On  those  time-defying  paintings 
discovered  among  the  ruins  that  fringe  the  Nile,  are  the 
figures  of  priests  in  the  very  act  of  operating  by  making 
magnetic  passes;  and  others  are  seen  in  the  process  of  being 
thrown  into  mesmeric  sleep.  Anubis  is  represented  in  those 
sacred  pictures  as  tenderly  bending  over  the  bed  and  putting 
his  hands  upon  the  sick,  as  do  the  healers  of  this  age. 

Emmanuel  Rebold,  M.  D.,  President  of  the  Academy  of 
Industrial  Sciences,  France,  speaking  of  that  occult  science, 
animal  magnetism,  says:  '*It  is  a  science  that  for  more  than 
three  thousand  years  was  the  peculiar  possession  of  the 
Egyptian  priesthood,  into  the  knowledge  of  which  Moses  was 
initiated  at  Ileliopolis,  where  he  was  educated."  This 
accounts  for  much  of  Moses'  wisdom,  and  also  for  his  medi- 
umship,  equaling  in  some  respects  that  of  Egyptian  seers 
and  hierophants.  The  light  of  this  age  clearly  proves  tha-t 
the  Jehovah  with  whom  he  so  familiarly  cr)nversed  was  his 
spirit-guide,  and  was  not  ver}^  exalted  in  the  sweet  graces  of 
charity  and  love;  and  that  the  "  word  of  the  Lord"  that 
came  to  him,  "  saying"  was  merely  the  voice  of  this  attend- 
ing spirit  heard  clairaudiently,  as  Socrates  heard  the 
admonishing  voice  of  his  good  demon.  We  have  authority 
for  saying  that  this  Jehovah  of  the  Mosaic  age,  when  on 
earth,  was  an  Egyptian  priest,  by  the  name  of  Gee-ho-ka  but 
neither  of  the  noblest  nor  purest  of  the  priesthood. 

The  famed  philologist,  Kircher,  in  his  "  Odipus  Egyptia- 
cus,"  gives  the  following  accounts  of  gods,  demi-gcds,  and 
genii  of  Egypt:  "The  Egyptians  alwa3^s  held  in  great  vene- 
ration certain  temples  and  statues — these  latter  they  called 
scrapes;  and  over  provinces,  cities,  temples,  scrapes,  private 
houses,  and  especially  men,  gods^  demons,  and  genii  presided 
and  watched  as  familiars,  to  guard  from  danger  and  give 
advice."     Some  of  those  were   eventually  worshiped  by  the 


ANCIENT    HISTORIC    SPIRITUALISM  —  EGYPTIAN.  35 

less  wise  as  private  deities,  having  been  ancestors  departed 
from  the  earth  to  become  gods. 

"  The  signs  of  those  that  are  inspired  are  multiform.  For  the 
inspiration  is  indicated  by  the  motions  of  the  (whole)  body,  and  of 
certain  parts  of  it,  by  the  perfect  rest  of  the  body,  by  harmonious 
orders  and  dances,  and  by  elegant  sounds,  or  the  contraries  of  these. 
Either  the  body,  likewise,  is  seen  to  be  elevated  or  increased  in  bulk, 
or  to  be  borne  along  sub'.imely  in  the  air.  An  equability  also  of  vcicc 
according  to  magnitude ;  or  a  great  variety  of  voice  after  intervals  of 
silence,  may  be  observed.  And  again,  sometimes  the  sounds  have  a 
musical  intention  and  remission."     (Jamblichus  de  Mysteriis.) 

This  is  nothing  at  all  remarkable,  for  bodies  these  days  are 
not  only  borne  aloft,  but  there  are  spirit-sounds,  dances,  and 
other  phases  of  iniiuence,  exactly  like  the  above  descriptions 
of  ancient  Media. 

"  The  image  of  the  god  (Jupiter  Ammon)  is  composed  of  emeralds 
and  other  precious  stones,  and  gives  oracles  in  a  way  quite  peculiar.  It 
is  borne  about  in  a  golden  ship  by  eighty  priests  ;  who,  bearing  it  upon 
their  shoulders,  go  whithersoever  the  god  (image)  by  nodding  his  head, 
directs  them."  (Diodor.  SicuL  Lib.  17.)  This  is  not  muc'h,  even 
though  Jupiter  did  it.  About  equivalent  to  tipping  a  light-stand,  or 
moving  some  other  small  furniture.'^ 

Within  thirty-five  years  ancient  Egypt  has  become  better 
known  to  us  than  it  was  to  the  learned  men  of  the  Roman 
Empire;  for  we  not  only  read  its  theology  and  philosophy  in 
its  hieroglyphics,  but  interpret  more  accurately  by  their  aid, 
and  that  of  the  cuniform  inscriptions,  the  ancient  narratives 
of  Herodotus  and  Diodorus  Siculus.  Her  temples,  towers, 
relics,  hieroglyphs  and  paintings,  all  unite  their  testimony 
with  that  of  the  Grecian  historians  in  confirmation  of  the 
universal  prevalence,  in  some  form,  of  what  is  now  denom- 
inated Spiritualism.  It  was  God's  living  witness  in  remotest 
ages.  It  is  his  witness  to-day  by  the  mediation  of  angels, 
voicing  the  eternal  truth  of  a  conscious  immortality. 


c 


HAPTER     Y. 


CHINESE. 


**  The  awful  shadow  of  some  unseen  Power 

Floats,  though  unseen,  among  us  ,   visiting 
This  various  world  with  a  constant  wing, 

As  summer  winds  that  creep  from  flower  to  flower," 

"  Meanwhile  prophetic  harps 
In  every  grove  were  ringing." 

Old  as  the  rocks,  gigantic  in  mental  structure,  sternly 
moral,  China  —  circling  coronal  round  the  brow  of  nations — 
looms  up  before  us  an  interminable  panorama,  unrolling 
religious  scenery  that  enraptures  every  sense.  The  Chinese, 
through  cycles  of  weary  ages,  have  held  conscious  communion 
with  the  inhabitants  of  the  heavens. 

After  a  voyage  among  the  South  Sea  isles  and  along  the 
Pacific  coast,  we  were,  in  1861,  at  Placerville,  introduced  to 
Le  Can,  a  learned  Mandarin,  who  graduated  from  a  Chinese 
University,  and  was  then  employed  as  interpreter  in  the 
courts  of  California.  Highly  intelligent,  he  was  proud  of 
his  national  literature.  The  following  conversation  with 
him  will  never  fade  from  our  memory : 

"Have  your  people  a  Bible,  or  sacred  books?'' 

"Certainly,  sir;  the  sacred  books  of  the  kings,  and  the 
divine  teachings  of  Lao-tse,  and  Confucius." 

"Do  they  give  any  account  of  a  flood  occuring  several 
thousand  years  since  ?" 

"  Most  assuredly,  sir ;  and  not  only  one,  but  many  floods, 
also  of  the  sij  king  of  islands,  and  the  rising  of  continents 

36 


ANCIENT    HISTORIC    SPIRLTUALISM  —  CHINESE.  37 

h  )m  the  ocean.  Phj^sical  convulsions  were  very  frequent 
fifteen,  twenty  and  thirty  thousand  years  ago ! " 

"  How  far  back  does  the  history  of  your  sacred  books 
extend?" 

"  Full  forty-four  thousand  years ! " 

"Wh}^,  our  historians  give  no  account  of  your  nation 
reaching  into  the  distance  so  many  thousand  years ! " 

"  Your  historians !  When  America  was  inhabited  by  Indians 
and  Europe  by  barbarians,  we  were  an  old  and  matured 
nation.  Civilizations,  like  individuals,  have  their  morninsrs. 
noontides  and  declinations." 

"  What  do  your  sacred  books  teach  ?  " 

''Ours, with  all  other  oriental  scriptures, teach  the  existence 
of  God,  the  necessity  of  morality,  and  the  immortality  of 
the  human  soul." 

*'  Do  your  people  believe  in  any  intercourse  between  the 
living  and  the  dead  ? " 

"They  have  always  believed  it ;  and  what  now  surprises 
you  under  the  phenomena  of  Spirit  Rappings  is  as  ancient 
as  our  national  records." 

Dr.  McGowan,  long  a  missionary  in  China  and  Japan,  in 
a  lecture  delivered  a  few  years  since  before  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association  of  Chicago,  111.,  speaking  of  the  arts, 
sciences,  and  wonderful  ingenuity  of  the  more  ancient 
Asiatics,  said : 

"  The  Chinese  were  well  acquainted  with  the  modes  of  table  tipping 
now  occurring  in  America,  and  have  been  for  a  great  lapse  of  time. 
Their  great  teachers  also  many  thousand  years  ago  offered  sacrifices  and 
professed  to  hold  actual  converse  with  the  departed  of  the  future 
world." 

Gutzlaff  affirms  that  they  sacrificed  on  high  mountains, 
considered  themselves  surrounded  by  hosts  of  spirits,  demons, 
gods,  angels  and  invisible  powers,  and  that  spirits  met  them 
at  their  altars  and  presided  over  their  temples. 

At  a  grand  banquet  given  to  Mr.  Burlingame  and  his 
associates  of  the  Chinese  E-mbassy,  in  IN'ew  York,  the  dailies 
reporting  the  speeches  gave  this  Christian  country  some  lew 


38  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

ideas   relative  to  China.      Who  are  the  heathen,  Amerioai. 
Christians,  or  the  Confucian  Chinese  ?    Mr.  Burlingame  said  • 

"  The  East  which  men  have  sought  since  the  days  of  Alexander, 
now  itself  seeks  the  West.  China,  emerging  from  the  mists  of  time, 
but  yesterday  suddenly  entered  your  western  gates,  and  confronts  you 
by  its  representatives  here  to-night.  What  have  you  to  say  to  her  ? 
She  comes  with  no  menace  on  her  lips;  she  comes  with  the  great 
doctrine  of  Confucius,  uttered  two  thousand  and  three  years  f^o.  'do 
not  unto  others  what  you  would  not  have  others  do  unto  you.'  *  * 
I  say  that  the  Chinese  are  a  great  and  noble  people.  They  have  all 
the  elements  of  a  splendid  nationality.  They  are  the  r.iost  numerous 
people  on  the  face  of  the  globe ;  the  most  homogeneous  people  in  the 
world ;  their  language  spoken  by  more  human  beings  than  any  other  in 
the  world,  and  it  is  written  in  the  rock ;  it  is  a  country  where  there  is 
a  greater  unification  of  thought  than  any  other  in  the  world  ]  it  is  a 
country  where  the  maxims  of  the  great  sages,  coming  down  memorized, 
have  permeated  the  whole  people,  until  their  knowledge  is  rather  an 
instinct  than  an  acquirement.  They  are  a  people  loyal  while  living, 
and  whose  last  prayer  when  dying  is  to  sleep  in  the  sacred  soil  of  their 
fathers.  It  is  a  laud  of  scholars  and  of  schools ;  a  land  of  books,  from 
the  smallest  pamphlet  up  to  encyclopedias  of  five  thousand  volumes. 
It  is  a  land  where  the  priviliges  are  common  ;  it  is  a  land  without 
caste,  for  they  destroyed  their  feudal  system  two  thousand  and  one 
hundred  years  ago,  and  they  built  up  their  great  structure  of  civilization 
on  the  great  idea  that  the  people  are  the  source  of  power.  That  idea 
was  uttered  by  IMenchius  two  thousand  and  three  hundred  years  ago, 
and  it  was  old  when  he  uttered  it.'' 

An  Oxford  Professor,  England,  lecturing  upon  Orientalism, 
said:  "Buddhist  missionaries  reached  China  from  India,  as 
early  as  the  third  century  before  Christ."  The  *'  language 
v/hich  the  Chinese  pilgrims  went  to  India  to  study,  as  the 
key  tc  the  sacred  literature  of  Buddhism,  was  Sanscrit." 

The  Britannica  Encyclopedia  avers  that  '*  Sir  William  Jones 
and  others  attribute  to  some  of  the  works  extant  in  Sanscrit, 
an  antiquity  of  four  and  five  thousand  years."  Speaking  ol 
the  immense  wealth  and  beauty  of  this  language.  Sir  William 
further  says  :  "  The  Sanscrit  is  of  a  wonderful  structure, 
more  perfect  than  the  Greek,  more  copious  than  the  Latin , 
and  more  exquisitely  refined  than  either."  One  of  the 
profoundest  thinkers  of  Chinese  antiquity  appeared  in  the 
person  of  Lao-tse,   betwee  i  six  and  seven  hundred  years. 


ANCIENT    HISTORIC    SPIRITUALISM — CHINESE.  3^ 

B.  C.  He  was  a  great  spiritual  reformer,  and,  living  a  life  of 
self-denial  and  contemplation,  professed  frequently  to  ascend 
into  the  immortal  realms,  and  there  live  during  brief  seasons 
with  the  genii  and  seen-spiriis  and  angels.  Then  he  would 
return  freighted  with  new  ideas,  teaching  his  countrymen  a 
purer  faith  and  diviner  doctrines.  His  life  was  calm  and 
beautiful.  He  taught  alchemy  and  magic;  also  maxims  and 
morals  so  exalted  that  they  called  him  a  "  doctor  of  reason; ' 
and  yet  he  strenuously  insisted  that  all  great  religious  and 
spiritual  truths  had  been  brought  down  to  men  from  such  of 
their  honored  ancestors  as  had  become  gods  in  celestial 
climes. 

The  eminent  Chinese  sage,  Confucius,  was  born  the  19th  of 
June,  551,  B.  C,  at  Shanping  in  the  kingdom  of  Lu.  The  real 
name  of  Confucius  was  Kong,  but  his  disciples  called  him 
Kong-futse,  that  is,  Kong  the  Master,  or  Teacher,  which  the 
Jesuit  missionaries  Latinized  into  Confucius.  Remarkable 
dreams  and  omens  are  said  to  have  preceded  his  birth,  and 
his  origin,  traced  back  by  his  disciples,  was  derived  from 
Hoang-ti,  a  powerful  monarch,  of  China,  who  flourished  more 
than  2000,  B.  C.  In  the  introduction  to  the  "Chinese 
Classics,"  part  1st,  Rev.  Dr.  LQggo.  says :  "  Confucius,  in 
his  frequent  references  to  heaven,  followed  the  phraseology 
of  the  older  sages,  giving  occasion  to  many  of  his  followers 
to  identify  God  with  a  principle  of  reason  and  the  course  of 
nature.  ^  ^  ^  Along  with  the  worship  of  God 
there  existed  in  China,  from  the  earliest  historical  times,  the 
worship  of  other  spiritual  beings  specially,  and  to  every 
individual  the  worship  of  departed  ancestors."  In  the 
Confucian  Analects,  (p.  57),  Ke  Loo  asked  about  serving  the 
spirits  of  the  dead.  The  master  said,  "While  you  are  not  able 
to  serv^e  men,  how  can  you  serve  their  spirits?"  Ke  Loo 
added,  "  I  ventured  to  ask  about  death."  *  *  The 
master  said,  "  How  abundantly  do  sjnritual  beings  display  the 
power  that  belongs  to  them !  They  cause  all  the  people  in  the 
empire  to  fast  and  purify  themselves;  then,  like  over-flowing 


10  DOCTRINES   OF   SPIRITUALISTS. 

water,  they  seem  to  be  over  the  heads,  and  on  the  right  and 
left  of  their  worshipers" — that  is,  admirers.  *  ♦  ♦ 
*'  He  who  attains  the  sovereignty  of  the  empire,  having  these 
three  important  things,  shall  effect  few  errors  under  his 
government.  His  presenting  himself  with  his  institutions 
before  spiritual  beings,  without  any  doubts  about  them  arising, 
shows  that  he  knows  heaven,^* 


Chaptei^^  vi. 


PERSIAN. 

"  I  am  of  that  impious  race, 
Those  slaves  of  fire,  who,  morn  and  eyen, 
Hail  their  Creator's  dwelling  place 
Among  the  living  lights  of  heaven  !  " 

"  Such  are  the  parables  of  Zartusht  address'd 
To  Iran's  faith,  in  the  ancient  Zend-Avest." 

Persia  is  the  region  of  bloom,  of  flowers,  of  fire-altars,  ot 
sun-worshipers — where  the  tamirand,  the  date,  the  cassia, 
and  the  silken  plantains  of  the  valley  mingle  their  loveliness 
in  rich  contrast  with  the  fan-like  foliage  of  palms,  graceful 
as  those  that  fleck  "Araby's  green  sunny  highlands/' 

The  Persians  neighbored  commercially  with  the  Egyptians, 
and  the  '^  Jews  came  up  out  of  Egypt."  This  accounts  for  the 
similarity  traceable  everywhere  between  the  teachings  of  the 
Zend-Avesta  and  the  Kabbala  of  the  Jews.  The  Rabbins 
contend  that  the  more  philosophical  portions  of  this  latter 
work  originated  in  heaven — that  the  angel  Raziel  instructed 
Adam  in  it;  the  angel  Japhiel,  Shem;  and  the  angel  Zedekiel, 
Abraham.  Abounding  in  angelic  ministrations,  miraculous 
works,  and  profound  mystical  truths,  the  more  erudite  Jews 
considered  the  Kabbala  as  em'bodying  the  principles  of  all 
genuine  science,  and  the  true  interpreter  of  the  Hebrew 
Scriptures. 

The  Persians  were  naturally  a  worshipful  people.  Their 
rnagi  were  their  wise  men.     The  Asiatic  rendering  of  the 

41 


42  DOCTRINES    OF   SPIRITUALISTS. 

word  signifies  consecrated  men,  men  devoted  to  the  worship 
of  God.  Accordingly,  the  word  magic  originally  signified 
the  practice  of  worship,  and  the  Magi  of  the  East  were  those 
who  devoted  themselves  to  science  and  worship. 

Says  Alger :  Zoroaster  prays,  "  When  I  shall  die,  let  Aban 
and  Bahman  carry  me  to  the  bosom  of  joy."  It  was  a  com- 
mon belief  among  the  Persians,  that  souls  were  at  seasons 
permitted  to  leave  the  under  world,  and  the  upper  regions 
and  visit  their  relatives  on  earth. 

The  confusion  relative  to  the  time  and  teachings  of  Zoro- 
aster, has  arisen  from  overlooking  the  well  established  fact, 
that  there  were  certainly  two,  probably  three,  distinguished 
personages  bearing  the  name.  Zoroaster  occurs  as  a  royal 
name  in  the  Chaldean  lists  of  Berosus.  Pliny,  following  the 
positive  afi&rmation  of  Aristotle,  declares  that  Zoroaster  the 
first,  flourished  six  thousand  years  before  Plato.  Hermippus, 
a  man  of  great  erudition,  places  him  five  thousand  years 
before  the  Trojan  war.  Meoyle,  Rhode,  Yolney,  Gibbon, 
and  other  reliable  scholars,  concur  in  throwing  him  back 
into  this  vast  antiquity. 

The  great  religious  chieftain  of  Persia,  called  by  the 
Greeks  Zoroaster,  and  by  the  Orientals,  Zendust,  was  born 
according  to  Herodotus,  about  the  year  1250,  and,  according  to 
other  historic  writers,  full  1,400  B.  C.,  in  Aderbijan,  ancient 
Media.  Suidas  terms  him  a  Perso-Mede.  His  birth  was 
announced  to  his  mother  in  a  wonderful  dream.  She  also 
saw  in  vision  a  brilliant  angel  hurling  a  book  at  evil  demons, 
and  a  youth  rising  up  and  becoming  a  mighty  person  in  the 
lands  of  the  Orient.  Zoroaster  was  often  warned  in  dreams; 
saw  celestial  spirits ;  entered  by  trance  into  the  heavenly 
world,  and,  being  ushered  into  the  presence  of  Ormuzd. 
conversed  with  him  and  his  hosts  of  angels.  The  historian 
informs  us  that  he  obtained  the  commandments  of  the  Aves- 
tan  rolls  from  Ormuzd  on  a  mountain,  amid  awful  flames  of 
light,  as  did  Moses  on  Mt.  Sinai. 


ANCILNT    HISTORIC    SPIRITUALISM  —  PERSIAN.  43 

After  a  quiet  retreat  of  "twenty  years  duration,"  accord- 
ing to  Pliny,  as  a  work  of  preparation  by  fasting  and  com- 
muning with  heaven,  he  commenced  the  public  propagation 
of  his  doctrines,  at  the  age  of  thirty,  in  the  caj'  ,tal  of  the 
kingdom  of  the  Bactrians.  His  system  was  eminently  spir- 
itual, abounding  in  revelations,  prophecies  and  miracles — in 
visions,  attending  angels,  good  and  evil  spirits.  Scarcely  is 
a  man  dead,  say  the  Zend  books,  ''  before  demons  good,  or 
demons  evil,  come  to  possess  him,  and  bear  him  to  their  own 
state  of  life." 

Richardson  informs  us  *'that,  among  other  religious  cere- 
monies, the  Magi  used  to  place  upon  the  tops  of  high  towers 
various  kinds  of  rich  viands,  upon  which  it  was  supposed  the 
Peris  and  the  spirits  of  their  departed  heroes  regaled  them- 
selves." This  corresponds  with  the  scriptural  account  of 
Jesus'  partaking  of  "  broiled  fish  and  an  honey  comb,"  after 
his  resurrection.  During  the  rise,  the  reign  and  fall  of  the 
Persian  kingdom,  the  Magi,  or  media,  were  held  in  great 
repute,  sitting  often  as  counselors  in  the  courts  of  kings. 

Magic  vras  but  another  name  for  wisdom.  The  magic  of 
the  Persians  and  Chaldeans,  says  the  scholarly  Brucker,  ''is 
not  to  be  confounded  with  witchcraft,  or  a  supposed  inter- 
course with  evil  spirits  only ;  it  consisted  in  the  performance 
of  certain  religious  ceremonies  or  incantations,  which  were 
supposed,  through  the  interposition  of  good  demons,  to  have 
&upernatural  effects,"  Magic  and  miracle,  dream  and  vision, 
prophecy  and  angel  intercourse,  blending  with  the  Persian 
philosophy  and  theology  as  rainbow  hues,  w&re  among  the 
prevailing  religious  ideas  of  this  powerful  empire.  From 
these  the  later  Hebrew  prophets,  of  Old  Testament  memory, 
borrowed  largely. 


Chaptei^^  yii, 


HEBRAIC. 


"  Who  is  he  that  cometh  from   Edom  ?   with  dyed  garments  from 
Bozrah  ?    traveling  in  the  greatness  of  his  strength/^     *         *         * 
"I    have    trodden  the    wine-press    alone.     "Who    hath  believed   our 
report  ?" 

0  Israel!  how  beautiful  upon  the  mountains  thy  patri- 
archs, prophets,  apostles !  What  a  lyrical  sweetness,  rich- 
ness of  expression,  moral  grandeur  of  thought,  flame  through 
their  language,  bridging  and  brightening  the  historic  passage 
of  full  four  thousand  years  !  Abraham,  girded  with  faith — 
David,  poetic — Isaiah,  inspirational — Ezekiel,  psychologic — 
Daniel,  prophetic — Jeremiah,  sympathetic — Jesus,  spiritual- 
istic— James,  practical — John, pictorial  and  affectionate; — all 
these  starred  the  highway  of  their  ''Lord"  with  heavenly 
truths,  voiced  the  word  of  angels  from  the  Dead  Sea  to 
Gennesaret,  shed  upon  their  "  promise  land  "  a  light  that 
lingers  now  in  ,vesper  beauty  there,  but  re-lit  to  blaze  with 
^.oftier  inspirations — a  sun  rising  in  the  West, 

No  scholars  versed  in  Shemitic  tongues,  or  well  read  in 

antiquity,  will  deny  that  the  Hebrew  scriptures  are  made  up 

principally  from  religious  records,   superstitious  relics,  and 

the  sacred  books  that  long  preceded  them.     Hence,  Godfrey 

Higgins   (in   his  learned  Ana.,  p.   272)  says,  in  referring   to 

Wnson's  discoveries,  "  It  is  now  certain  that  all  the  first  three 

paxts  of  Genesis  must  have  come  from  India." 

U    - 


ANCIENT    HISTORIC    SPIRITUALISM  —  IIEP.KAIC.  45 

The  dogmas,  laws,  rites,  and  ceremonies  that  characterized 
the  Mosaic  dispensation,  were  taken  almost  bodily  from  the 
mythic  codes  cf  Egypt's  priests  and  subordinate  castes.  The 
deciphered  hieroglyphs  demonstrate  this.  The  writings  of 
the  lesser  Jewish  prophets,  booked  in  the  Bible,  are  largely 
drawn  from  the  symbols,  wonders,  night  visions,  and  general 
religious  literature  of  the  older  Persian  Magi.  To  this  end 
the  author  of  the  English  Penny  Cyclopedia  informs  us  that 
'*  some  of  those  prophecies  recorded  in  the  Bible  were  extant 
in  books  written  long  before  the  events  took  place  to  which 
they  refer." 

Few  liistoric  facts  are  better  established  than  that  India 
colonized  Egypt.  After  giving  many  sound  reasons  for  this, 
Higgins  states  with  emphasis,  that  '*  India  was  the  parent  of 
Eg3'pt.'*  Manetho,  a  man  of  great  wisdom,  Egyptian  by 
birth,  residing  at  Heliopolis  in  the  time  of  the  Ptolemies,, 
yet  writing  his  history  in  Greek,  considered  the  Hebrews  as 
low  in  caste,  a  loose,  war-like,  wandering  people,  given  to 
heinous  vices.  He  further  contends  that  this  nomadic 
"  nation,  called  shepherds,  were  likewise  called  captives  in 
their  sacred  books."  After  "being  driven  out  of  Egypt," 
as  the  great  Jewish  historian  Josephus  admits,  they  jour- 
neyed through  the  "  wilderness  of  Syria,  and  finally  built  a 
city  in  Judea,  which  they  called  Jerusalem."  Professor 
Morton,  an  eminent  scientist,  giving  us  the  representation 
of  a  mummied  cranium,  taken  from  one  of  the  oldest 
Egyptian  sepulchres,  remarks:  "  This  head  possesses  a  great 
interest  on  account  of  its  decided  Hebrew  features,  of  which 
many  examples  are  extant  on  the  monuments,"  The  Egyp- 
tians being  originally  from  India,  and  the  Hebrews  residing 
in,  and  then  ultimately  driven  out  from  Egypt,  it  is  perfectly 
natural  that  the  customs,  and  particularly  the  theological 
ideas  of  the  Jews,  relating  to  this  and  the  future  life,  should 
in  a  great  measure  coincide  with  those  of  the  riper  and 
superior  nations. 

The  Pentateuch  of  Moses  was  nearly  all  made  up  from 
the   Brahminical   Yedas  and  Phoenician  manuscripts.     "In 


46  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

Sanchoniathon,'*  says  Higgins,  "  we  have,  in  substance,  the 
same  cosmogony  for  the  Phoenicians  as  is  found  in  Genesis. 
On  this  account  the  genuineness  of  his  books  has  been 
doubted,  but  I  think  without  sufficient  reason."  ( Aiiac.  B.  8, 
0.  2,  p.  391).  Father  Georgius,  who  was  master  of  the 
Tibetian  language,  quotes  the  story  of  Anobret  from  San- 
choniathon,  and  shows  that  the  Jeud  of  this  forerunner  of 
Moses,  is  the  Jid  of  the  Tibetians.  Both  Alexander 
Polyhistor  and  Abydene,  the  one  a  learned  compiler  in 
Scylla's  time,  the  other  referred  to  for  his  wisdom  by  Euse- 
bius,  agree  to  Sanchoniathon's  ante- dating  Moses,  and  to  the 
account  of  the  deluge,  and  other  portions  of  Genesis,  being 
purely  Chaldean,  taken  from  "  manuscripts  of  an  almost 
infinitely  remote  period  of  time." 

The  philosopher.  Porphyry,  student  of  Origen  and  Lon- 
ginus,  writes  (Lib.  iv,  Adv.  Christianos),  that  Sanchoniathon 
and  Moses  gave  the  like  accounts  of  persons  and  places,  and 
that  Sanchoniathon  extracts  his  account  partly  out  of  the 
annals  of  the  cities,  and  partly  out  the  book  reserved  in  the 
temple,  which  he  received  from  Jerombalus,  Priest  of  the 
God  Jeud,  who  is  Jao  or  Jehovah." 

Though  the  Jews  were  ever  less  spiritual  than  the  inhab- 
itants of  the  sunny  clime  of  India,  less  learned  than  the 
Egyptians,  less  poetic  than  the  Persians,  they  ever  had 
among  them  rare  spiritual  gifts ;  and  all  through  that  col- 
lection of  books  called  the  Old  Testament,  Spiritualism 
stands  out  prominent  Among  the  many,  note  the  following 
passages : 

"And  there  came  two  angels  to  Sodom  at  even,  and  Lot,  seeing  them, 
rose  up  to  meet  them," — Gen.  xix  :  L 

"  And  the  Lord  appeared  to  him  (Abraham)  in  the  plains.  *  *  * 
And  he  lifted  up  his  eyes  and  looked,  and  lo  !  three  men  stood  beside 
hini ;  and  when  he  saw  them  he  ran  to  meet  them  from  the  tent  door, 
and  bowed  himself  toward  the  ground." — Gen.  xviii  :  1-2. 

When  Jacob  was  traveling  to  meet  Esau,  he  beheld  the  angel  of 
God,  and  said  "  This  is  God's  host." — Gen.  xxxii. 

"  The  angel  of  the  Lord  appeared  to  Moses  in  a  flame  of  fire  out  of 
Jhe  midst  of  the  bush  :  the  bush  burned,  but  was  not  consumed.     He 


ANCIENT    HISTORIC    SPIRITUALISM  —  HEBRAIC.  47 

said,  '  I  am  the  God  of  thy  father,   the  God  of  Abraham,  Isaac,  and 
Jacob  ;'  and  Moses  hid  his  face." — Ex.  iii. 

'^  And  the  angel  of  the  Lord  found  her  (Hagar)  by  a  fountain  of 
water  in  the  wilderness,  *  *  ♦  a^^j  gjj^jj^  <.  Whence  camest 
ihouV— Gen.  xvi :  7. 

"  This  Moses,  whom  they  refused,  *  *  *  jj^  q.^^  ^e^^  to 
be  a  ruler  and  a  deliverer  by  the  hand  of  the  angel  which  appeared  to 
him  in  the  bush." — Acts  vii :  35. 

"  And  Jacob  went  on  his  way,  and  the  angels  of  God  met  him."— 
Gen.  xxxii :  1. 

"  And  as  he  (Elijah)  lay  and  slept  under  a  juniper  tree,  behold,  then, 
an  angel  touched  him  and  said  unto  him'  *  Arise  and  eat.'  " — 1  Kings 
xix :  5. 

"  Then  the  Lord  opened  the  eyes  of  Balaam,  and  he  saw  the  angel 
of  the  Lord  standing  in  the  way," — Num.  xxii :  31. 

Saul  consulted  a  medium  at  Endor. 

"And  she  said,  '  An  old  man  cometh  up;  and  he  is  covered  with  a 
mantle.'  And  Saul  perceived  that  it  was  Samuel,  and  he  stooped 
with  his  face  to  the  ground,  and  bowed  himself." — 1    Sam.  xxviii  :  14. 

"  Fear  came  upon  me  and  trembling,  which  made  all  my  bones  to 
shake.  Then  a  spirit  passed  before  my  face.  *  *  *  j^  stood 
still;  but  I  could  not  discern  the  form  thereof.  *  *  *  j 
heard  a  voice  saying,  'Shall  mortal  man  be  more  just  than  God?'  " — 
Joh,  iv  :  14-17 

"  While  I  was  speaking  in  prayer,  even  the  man  Gabriel,  whom  I 
had  seen  in  the  vision  at  the  beginning,  *  *  *  touched  me 
about  the  time  of  the  evening  oblation." — Dan,  ix :  21. 

'•  Then  Nebuchednezzar  spake  and  said,  '  Blessed  be  the  God  of 
Shadrach,  Meshach  and  Abednego,  who  hath  sent  his  angel  and 
delivered  his  servants  that  trusted  in  him,  and  have  changed  the  King's 
word.'  "  Dan.  x  :  9-10.  "  Yet  heard  I  the  voice  of  his  words,  and 
behold  a  hand  touched  me."  *  *  *  u  Q^hen  there  came  again 
and  touched  me  one  like  the  appearance  of  a  man,  and  he  strengthened 
me."— Z)aw.  X  :  18. 

"  And  it  «ame  to  pass,  when  I,  even  I,  Daniel,  had  seen  the  vision, 
and  sought  for  the  meaning,  then,  behold,  there  stood  before  me  as  the 
appearance  of  a  man.  And  I  heard  a  man's  voice  between  the  banks 
of  Ulai,  which  called  and  said,  Gabriel,  make  this  man  to  understand 
the  tision." — Dan.  viii  :  15-16. 

"  Yea,  while  I  was  speaking  in  prayer,  even  the  man  Gabriel,  whom 
[  had  seen  at  the  beginning,  being  caused  to  fly  swiftly,  touched  me 
ibout  the  time  of  the  evening  oblation." — Dan.  ix  :  21, 

A  most  interesting  case  of  the  return  of  spirits  to  mor- 
tals, is  related  of  Ezekiel.     On   one  occasion  the  '*  Lord," 


48  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALrSTS. 

that  is  the  ruling  spirit  of  the  Jewish  nation,  appeared  to 
the  prophet,  and  bj  the  hair  of  his  head  floated  him  away 
to  Jerusalem. 

^'  And  he  put  forth  the  form  of  a  hand,  and  took  me  by  a  lock  of 
mine  head;  and  the  spirit  lifted  me  up  between  the  earth  and  the 
heavens  and  brought  me  in  the  vision  of  Grod  to  Jerusalem  to  the  dooi 
of  the  inner  gate  that  looketh  toward  the  north. '^ — Eztkiel  viii :   3. 

Arriving  at  the  temple  after  this  serial  voyage,  he  entered, 
and  there  stood  before  him  seventy  spirits,  who  appeared 
as  men ;  men  who  had  lived  many  centuries  before  his 
time : 

"  And  there  stood  before  them  seventy  men  of  the  ancients  of  the 
house  of  Israel,  and  in  the  midst  of  them  stood  Jaazaniah,  the  son  of 
Shaphan,  with  every  man  his  censer  in  hand." — Ezehiel  viii:  11 

At  another  time,  being  in  vision,  having  been  carried 
thither  as  before,  he  saw  five  and  twenty  men,  or  spirits,  some 
of  whose  names  were  given,  who  were  known  as  conspicuous 
actors  in  the  ancient  days  of  Israel : 

"  Moreover  the  spirit  lifted  me  up,  and  brought  me  unto  the  east 
gate  of  the  Lord's  house,  which  looked  eastward  :  and  behold  at  the 
door  of  the  gate  five  and  twenty  men  ;  among  whom  I  saw  Jaazaniah 
the  son  of  Azur,  and  Pelatiah,  the  son  of  Benaiah,  princes  of  the 
people." — E?:ekiel  xi :  1. 

About  3260,  B.  C,  a  powerful  Mede,  visiting  Sardanapa- 
.us,  reproved  him  for  the  luxuriousness  of  his  court,  and 
conspired  with  Belesis,  of  Babylonia,  to  overthrow  him. 
Diodorus  Siculus  informs  us,  that  when  Sardanapalus  heard 
of  it,  he  laughed  the  whole  thing  to  contempt,  saying,  an 
ancient  prophecy,  since  confirmed  by  the  voices  of  the  'gods,' 
had  promised  that  Nineveh  should  never  be  taken  by  force. 
This  exhibits  the  faith  those  old  Assyrians  had  in  omens  and 
oracles   from   the   immortals. 

Berosus  states  that  the  winds,  aided  by  the  gods,  angels, 
or  spirits,  destroying  the  towers  of  Babel,  introduced  the 
confusion  of  tongues ;  and  that  their  \vise  men,  in  dreams 
and  visions,  frequently  foretold  the  ruin  of  nations. 


ANCIENT    niSTOKIC    SPIRITUALISM  —  HEBRAIC.  49 

The  terms  gods,  lords,  angels,  demons,  spirits,  were  used 
interchangeably  by  Egyptian,  Phoenician,  Persian,  and  the 
more  ancient  Grecian  writers.  This  understood,  much  of 
the  mysticism  connected  with  God  and  Jehovah,  Lord  and 
Angel,  as  used  by  theologians,  is  cleared  away.  In  the  Old 
Testament  we  read:  *'In  the  beginning  Gods,  (Elohim, 
plural)  created  the  heaven  and  the  earth."  Hesiod  has  a 
poem  entitled  Theogonia,  giving  the  "generation  of  the 
gods."  "In  the  book  of  Moses,"  says  that  learned  church 
authority,  Calmet,  "the  name  of  God  is  often  given  to  the 
angels.  *  *  *  Princes,  magistrates,  and  great  men 
are  called  gods.  If  a  slave  is  desirous  to  continue  with 
his  master,  he  shall  be  brought  to  the  gods.  The  Lord  (an 
exalted  angel)  is  seated  amidst  the  gods,  and  judges  with 
them." 

The  testimony  of  the  truly  eminent  Philo  Judseus,  relative 
to  the  identity  of  god,  lord,  angel,  spirit,  etc.,  is  exceedingly 
important.     We  quote  from  Yonge's  translation  :    "  Those 
(referring  to   gods)  of  the  most  divine  nature  are  utterly 
regardless  of   any  situation  on  earth,  but  are  raised  to  a 
greater  height,  and  placed  in  the  ether  itself,  being  of  the 
purest  possible  character,  which  those  among  the  Greeks 
that  Itave  studied  philosophy,  call  heroes  and  demons,  and 
which  Moses,  giving  them  a  most  felicitous  appellation,  calls 
angels,  acting,  as  they  do,  the  part  of  ambassadors  and  mes- 
sengers.    Therefore,  if  you  look  upon  souls  and  demons  and 
angels  as  things  differing  indeed  in  name,  but  as  meaning  in 
reality  one  and  the  same  thing,  you  will  thus  get  rid  of  the 
heaviest  of  all  evils — superstition.     For  as  people  speak  of 
good  demons  and   bad  demons,  so  do  they  speak  of  good 
and  bad  souls ;  and  also  of  some  angels  as  being  by  their 
title  worthy  ambassadors       *       *       *       from  God  to  men, 
being   sacred   and   inviolable   guardians ;    others   as  being 
unholy  and  unworthy.     Hence,  the  Psalmist  David  speaks  of 
the  'operation  of  evil  angels.'" 

In  harmony  with  the  above,  from  a  different  source,  yet 
in  confirmation  of  the  same  general  idea,  we  quote  from  the 

/f  OF  TK? 

f    UNiVE: 


50  DOCTRINES   OF   SPIRITUALISTS. 

third  volume  of  Plato,  by  Burges,  Trinity  College,  Cam- 
bridge :  "  They  are  demons,  because  prudent  and  learned. 
*  *  *  *  Hence,  poets  say  well,  who  say  that 
when  a  good  man  shall  have  reached  his  end,  he  receives  a 
mighty  destiny  and  honor,  and  becomes  a  demon  according 
to  the  appellation  of  prudence." 

Concurring  with  the  general  belief  of  those  ages,  the 
Grecian  poet  Hesiod,  in  his  "  "Works  and  Ddya"  says  : 

"But  when  concealed  had  destiny  this  race, 
Demons  there  were,  called  holy  upon  earth, 
Good,  ill-averters,  and  of  men  the  guard." 

Also,  this  significant  line  occurs : 

*'  Holy  demons  by  great  Jove  designed." 

Earnest  Renan,  one  of  the  most  eminent  Shemitic  schol- 
ars living,  speaking,  in  his  '*Life  of  Jesus,"  of  the  group 
that  assembled  upon  the  banks  of  Lake  Tiberias  to  listen  to 
Jesus  says  :  "  They  believed  in  spectres  and  in  spirits." 

These  citations  from  Hesiod,  Plato,  and  especially  Philo 
Judaeus,  a  few  years  the  senior  of  the  Galilean,  clearly  demon- 
strate the  fact  of  the  identity  of  gods,  spirits,  demons  and 
angels,  that  there  were  good,  learned,  and  holy  demons, 
and  those  denominated  unholy  ;  and  that  these  demons,  or 
spirits  and  angels,  held  intercourse  with,  and  were  the 
guardians  of  mortals. 

As  a  general  thing,  the  magi,  magicians,  or  media  of 
Egypt,  excelled  Moses  in  the  production  of  wonders  manifest 
in  the  different  phases  of  phenomenal  Spiritualism.  Tak- 
ing their  account,  they  were  doubtless  always  the  victors. 
They  certainly  had  several  trials  for  the  mastery.  Accepting 
the  scriptural  rendering,  it  is  evident  that  the  wonderful 
works  wrought  by  Moses  were  also  accomplished,  with 
hardly  an  exception,  through  the  "  enchantments"  of  Pha- 
raoh's "wise  men  and  magicians."  This  enchantment  was 
the  mesmeric  will-force — a  part  of  the  very  '^wisdom''  that 
Moses  had  learned  in  Egypt.  Psychologists  are  always  aided 
naore  or  less  by  their  spirit  guides. 


ANCIENT    HISTORIC    SPIRITUALISM  —  HEBRAIC.  51 

Referring  to  the  so-called  miracles  recorded  in  the  7th 
chapter  of  Exodus,  we  find  that  the  magicians  turned  their 
rods  into  serpents  (psychologically,  of  course);  water  into 
blood ;  and  produced  the  frogs  also,  with  seemingly  the 
same  ease  and  celerity  that  Moses  and  Aaron  did,  and 
by  the  same  psychologic  law.  But  when  the  Lord,  through 
Moses,  commanded  Aaron  to  "stretch  out  his  rod"  and  go 
to  manufacturing '*  te,"  the  magicians  begged  to  be  excused; 
it  was  too  small  business — utterly  beneath  the  magi,  or 
media  of  old,  proud  and  classic  Egypt !  They  would  not 
thus  degrade  their  psychologic  knowledge — a  portion  of 
their  sacred  mysteries.  To  be  sure  Moses  says  they  ^^  could 
not."  This  is  Moses'  version  of  the  matter,  however,  (if 
indeed,  he  ever  wrote  the  Pentateuch);  and  Moses,  holding 
himself  in  high  estimation,  wrote  in  his  own  interest;  and, 
what  is  more,  a  man,  courting  fame,  that  could  write  an 
account  of  his  own  death  and  burial,  is  entitled,wrlte  what  he 
may,  to  little  credit. 

ISTever  charmed  with  Moses'  characteristics,  we  do  not 
deny  his  mediumship,  nor  the  truth  of  his  frequent  conver- 
sations with  the  "Lord  God,  face  to  face;"  that  is,  his  famil- 
iar spirit,  but  we  rate  it  second  to  the  mediumistic  powers 
of  the  seers  of  Egypt  and  Persia,  and  immeasurably  inferior 
to  that  of  the  Judean  prophets.  See  the  power  of  the  gods 
when  the  Syrians  came  to  seize  Elisha :  "  "When  the  servant 
had  risen  early  and  gone  forth,  behold  an  host  encompassed 
the  city,  both  with  horses  and  chariots.  And  his  servant 
said  unto    him,   ^Alas!      my  master!    what  shall  we  do?' 

*  *  *  "  And  Elisha  prayed,  and  said,  *Lord,  I  pray 
thee  open  his  eyes  (clairvoyant  eyes)  that  he  may  see.'" 
And  the  Lord,  angel  or  spiritual  being,  opened  the  eyes,  that 
is,  the  interior  or  spiritual  eyes,  of  the  young  man,  and  he 
saw  —  saw  because  the  inner  vision  was  unsealed  —  and 
"  behold,  the  mountain  was  full  of  horses  and  chariots  of 
fire  round  about  Elisha. — 2  Kings  iv. 

Titus,  in  his  address  to  his  soldiers  before  Jerusalem, 
said  ,  "For  what  man  of  virtue  is  there  that  does  not  know 


62  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

that  those  souls  which  are  severed  from  their  fleshy  bodies 
ill  battles  by  the  sword,  are  received  by  the  ether,  that  purest 
of  elements,  and  joined  to  that  company  which  are  placed 
among  the  stars ;  that  they  become  good  demons,  and  pro- 
pitious heroes,  and  show  themselves  as  such  to  their  posterity 
afterward?''' — Josephus,  B.  vi :  chap.  1.,  §  5. 

The  Hebrew  scriptures,  Talmud,  and  Kabbala,  all  abound 
in  dreams,  omens,  prophecies,  angelic  interpositions  and 
spirit  communications,  often  beautiful,  and  sometimes  abso- 
lutely grand  ;  all  of  which  bear  a  close  resemblance  in  form 
and  purpose  to  those  more  marked  manifestations  of  spirit 
power,  that  threw  such  a  transcendent  glory  over  the  older 
nations  of  Central  and  Southern  Asia.  "The  most  usual 
form,"  said  the  learned  and  Orthodox  Calmet,  "in  which 
good  angels  appear,  both  in  the  Old  Testament  and  l^ew,  is 
the  human  form."  It  was  in  that  shape  they  showed  them- 
selves to  Abraham,  Lot,  Jacob,  Moses,  Joshua,  Manoah  the 
father  of  Samson,  to  David,  Tobit,  and  the  Prophets.  The 
one  that  appeared  to  Joshua  on  the  plain  of  Jericho,  appeared 
apparently  in  the  guise  of  a  warrior,  since  Joshua  asked 
]iini — "Art  thou  for  us  or  for  our  adversaries  ?" 

But  enough  has  been  adduced  to  prove  that  the  Hebrew 
government,  in  all  its  religious  and  secular  interests,  was 
regulated  by  spirit  oracles,  and  that  these  constitute  the 
chief  beauty  of  its  administration. 

♦'  There  was  a  time  when  all  mankind 
Did  listen  to  a  faith  sincere, 
To  tuneful  tongues  in  mystery  verse.'* 

But  alas,  how  infidel  now  is  the  church  that  practically 
scorns  the  voice  of  faith  !  Let  Tertullian  speak  to  such ; 
"Thou  canst  not  call  that  madness  of  which  thou  art  proved 
to  know  nothing.'* 


Phap^tef^  viu. 


GRECIAN. 


*Go  on,  spotless  mortal,  in  the  path  of  virtue; 
It  is  the  way  to  the  stars; 
Offspring  of  the  gods  thyself — 
So  shalt  thou  become  the  father  of  gods." 

♦'Then  side  by  side  along  the  dreary  coast, 
Advanced  Achilles  and  Patroclus'  ghost, 
A  friendly  pair." 

Euchanted  is  olden  Greece!  Pre-eminently  the  land  of 
poetry,  painting  and  music,  of  art  and  witching  song,  her 
republics  voiced  the  heaven-winged  words  of  freedom  long 
before  the  "Son  of  Man"  said,  "whom  the  truth  maketh 
free  is  free  indeed."  Her  classic  mind  drank  deep  of  inspi- 
rations that  gushed,  fountain-like,  from  mountain,  hill  and 
vale,  haunted  by  nymphs  and  sylphs — from  sun-kissed  seas 
sprinkled  with  ever-green  isles  embossed  with  rainbows 
u?ider  gorgeous  skies,  deific  in  guardianship.  All  things 
conspired  to  engender  mental  vivacity,  genial  heart,  iwd 
aptitude  for  spiritual  impression  and  culture.  Incidental  to 
these  influences,  the  literature,  attributed  to  the  poets,  histor- 
ians, tragedians,  philosophers,  statesmen  and  moral  heroes 
of  Greece,  abounds  in  brilliant  thoughts  and  the  most 
sublime  ideas,  touching  the  invisible  realities  of  the  spirit- 
world. 

As  Americans  look  to  English  universities  for  samples  of 
highest  culture — as  N^orthern  Europe  once  looked  to  Rome — 

53 


54  DOCTRINES    OF   SPIRITUALISTS. 

Rome,  in  her  palmiest  periods,  to  Greece,  and  Egypt  to 
India,  so  the  literati  and  philosophers  among  the  Greeks 
looked  up  and  bowed  in  profound  reverence  before  the 
authors,  poets  and  long-treasured  wisdom  of  Egyptian 
savans.  Thither  flocked  the  wisest  of  the  Grecians  to  perfect 
their  education  both  scientific  and  religious.  The  learned 
Jacob  Bryant  says:  <^The  whole  theology  of  Greece  was 
derived  from  the  East.*'  Josephus  wrote  in  his  day:  "All 
that  concerns  the  Greeks,  we  may  say  is  of  yesterday  only." 
He  further  assures  us  that  the  Greeks  "acknowledged  that 
it  was  not  they,  but  the  Phoenicians,  Egyptians  and  other 
nations  of  antiquity,  who  preserved  the  most  memorials  and 
arts  of  mankind,  and  that  from  Egj^pt  they  themselves 
imported  them;  and  that  to  those  who  introduced  philos- 
ophy and  the  knowledge  of  things  celestial  and  divine  among 
them,  such  as  Pherec3^des  the  Scyrian,  Pythagoras  and 
Thales,  the}^  were  greatly  indebted.  All  with  one  consent 
agreed  that  they  learned  what  they  knew  of  the  Egyptians 
and  Chaldeans,  and  wrote  but  little."  Though  tinged  and 
tinctured  more  or  less  with  the  older  philosophers  of  Egypt 
and  India,  Spiritualism  was,  for  a  long  period,  the  universal 
religion  of  Greece.  Hesiod  flourished  about  1000  B.  C, 
and  in  his  Theogony  gave  a  faithful  account  of  the  gods 
(spirits)  of  antiquity.  He  himself  consulted  oracles,  as  to 
the  future,  and  at  a  certain  time  the  Pythia — priestess  of 
Apollo — (that  is,  the  female  medium  controlled  b}^  Apollo — 
an  ascended  mortal  termed  god)  directed  him  to  shun  the 
grove  of  demean  Jupiter,  which  he  did,  saving  his  life.  He 
declares,  himself  prophetically  inspired  by  the  gods  and 
goddesses,  saying  of  the  daughters  of  Jove: 

"They  gave  into  my  hand 
A  rod  of  marvelous  growth;  a  laurel  bough 
Of  blooming  verdure;  and  within  me  breathed 
A  heavenly  voice,  that  I  might  utter  forth 
All  past  and  future  things,  and  bade  me  praise 
The  blessed  of  ever-living  God." 


ANCIENT   HISTORIC    SPIRITUALISM  —  QBECIAN.  55 

Hesiod  frequently  breathes  his  firm  belief  in  the  tender 
watch-care  of  guardian  spirits,  as  well  as  those  that  take 
cognizance  of  vice : 

•♦Invisible,  the  gods  are  ever  nigh, 
Pass  through  our  midst,  and  bend  the  all-seeing  eye; 
The  men  who  grind  the  poor,  who  wrest  the  right, 
Aweless  of  heaven's  revenge,  stand  naked  to  their  sight; 
For  thrice  ten  thousand  holy  demons  rove 
This  breathing  world,  the  delegates  of  Jove. 
Guardians  of  man,  their  glance  alike  surveys 
The  upright  judgments  and  the  unrighteous  ways." 

Writing  of  the  seers  and  sages  of  a  past  golden  age,  the 
spirits  of  which  became  the  guardians  of  men,  he  says  in 
his  Works,  Elton's  translation  : 

♦*When  earth's  dark  womb  had  closed  this  race  around, 
High  Jove  as  demons  raised  them  from  the  ground 
Earth- wandering  spirits  that  their  charge  began, 
The  ministers  of  good,  the  guards  of  man. 
Mantled  with  mist  of  darkling  air  they  glide 
And  compass  earth,  and  pass  on  every  side; 
Kingly  their  state,  and  delegate  of  Heaven; 
By  their  vicarious  hands  prosperity  is  given." 

The  Arundelian  marbles  place  Homer  907  B.  C.  Born  at 
Bethsia,  a  village  of  Egypt,  nearer  the  Red  Sea  than  the 
Nile,  he  became  a  medium  and  seer  at  eight  years  of  age, 
spirits  appearing  visible  to  him  with  harps  and  songs,  indi- 
cating his  future  greatness.  His  earthly  Egyptian  teacher 
was  Helecate,  and  his  Grecian  tutor,  My  rah.  Hesiod  was 
his  direct  controlling  or  guardian  spirit.  In  these  breathing 
numbers,  immortal  utterances  and  matchless  poetical  combi- 
nations, Hesiod  prompted  him  in  the  Greek,  and  Lucitan  in 
the  Egyptian,  while  intellectually  and  spiritually  above  them 
both,  was  one  of  those  grand  old  Indian  seers  that  had  long 
summered  in  the  heavens.  This  accounts  for  the  striking: 
resemblances  between  the  Iliad  of  Homer  and  that  great 
Brahminical  poem  of  Yalmike,  entitled  the  Ramayana. 
All,  versed  in  the  Iliad  and  Odyssey,  know  they  are  all 
aglow  with    oracles,  prophecies,  dreams — the    descriptions 


56  DOCTRINES    OF   SPIRITUALISTS. 

of  gods,  goddesses  and  demons,  and  the  interest  they  ever 
take  in  human  affairs.  The  very  warp  and  woof  of  the 
Grecian  poetry  and  philosophy  were  spiritual,  and  hence 
their  beauty  and  freshness  to-day. 

Herodotus  writes  (Enterpe,  53) — "I  consider  Hesiod  and 
Homer  older  than  myself,  b}^  four  hundred  years.  *  *  * 
They  were  the  poets  who  framed  the  Hellenic  theogony ; 
gave  distinctive  names  to  the  gods;  distributed  amongst 
them  honors  and  professions,  and  pointed  out  their  receptive 
forms."  Diodorus  Siculus,  in  the  seventh  chapter  of  hie 
first  book,  "asserts  the  same;  that  is,  these  historians  mean 
to  state  that  these  poets  did  not  invent,  but  arranged  and 
detailed  the  knowledge  of  the  gods,"  brought  from  India  into 
Egypt;  then  from  Egypt  and  Syria  into  their  country  by 
Orpheus,  Danaus  and  Cadmus.  Pherecydes,  the  early 
teacher  of  Pythagoras,  flourishing  some  600  B.  C,  taught 
the  immortality  of  the  soul,  the  guardian  care  of  holy  gods 
and  demons,  and  is  considered  the  first  who  wrote  concerning 
the  nature  of  the  gods  in  i^^ose. 

Plato  in  the  Timoeus  says:  "That  between  God  and  man 
are  the  daimones  or  spirits,  who  are  always  near  us,  though 
commonly  invisible  to  us,  and  know  all  our  thoughts.  They 
are  intermediate  between  gods  and  men,  and  their  function 
is  to  interpret  and  convey  to  the  gods  what  comes  from  men, 
and  to  men  what  comes  from  the  gods." 

In  Plato's  Apology  and  Republic  (p.  31,  40,  b.  x. ),  that 
great  master  Grecian  says:  "  The  demons  often  direct  man  in 
the  quality  of  guardian  spirits,  in  all  his  actions,  as  witness 
the  demon  of  Socrates."  *  *  *  *  "There  are  two 
kinds  of  men.  One  of  these,  through  aptitude,  will  receive 
the  illuminations  of  divinity,  and  the  other,  through  inap- 
titude, will  subject  himself  to  the  power  of  avenging 
demons."  *  *  *  *  They  (the  poets)  do  not  compose 
by  art,  but  through  a  divine  power;  since,  if  they  knew 
how  to  speak  by  art  upon  the  subject  correctly,  they  would 
be  able  to  do  so  upon  all  others.  On  this  account,  a  deity 
has  deprived  them  of  their  senses,  and  employs  them  as  his 


ANCIENT    HISTORIC    SPIKITUALIPM — GRECIAN.  57 

ministers  and  oracle  singers,  and  divine  prophets,  in  order 
that,  when  we  hear  them,  we  may  know  it  is  not  they,  to 
whom  sense  is  not  present,  who  speak  what  is  valuable,  but 
the  god  himself  who  speaks,  and  through  them  addresses  us. 
We  are  not  to  doubt  about  those  beautiful  poems  being  not 
human,  but  divine,  and  the  work  not  of  men,  but  of  gods; 
and  that  the  poets  are  nothing  else  but  interpreters  of  the 
gods,  (that  is,  spirits,)  possessed  by  whatever  deity  they  may 
happen  to  be. 

The  dialogue  of  Plato  relative  to  the  conversations  of 
Socrates  with  his  friends,  contain  the  richest  veins  of  spirit- 
ual truth.  In  the  Phsedon,  Cebes  says:  "Persuade  us  then 
not  to  fear  death." 

"As  for  that,"  says  Socrates,  "you  must  employ  spells 
and  exorcisms  every  day  till  you  be  cured." 

"But  pray,  Socrates,  where  shall  we  meet  an  excellent 
conjurer,  since  you  are  going  to  leave  us?" 

"Greece  is  large  enough,"  replies  Socrates,  "and  well 
stored  with  learned  men.  You  must  likewise  look  for  a 
conjurer  among  yourselves;  for  'tis  possible  there  may  be 
none  found  more  able  to  perform  those  enchantments." 

"Do  the  souls  of  the  dead  have  a  being  in  the  other  world 
or  no?" 

"It  is  a  very  ancient  opinion  that  souls  quitting  this  world 
repair  to  the  infernal  regions,  and  return  after  that  to  live  in 
this  world  *  *  *  *  ^Yhen  a  man  dies,  his  mortal  and 
corruptible  part  suffers  dissolution,  but  the  immortal  part 
escapes  unhurt  and  triumphs  over  death.  *  *  *  *  ipi^g 
earth  we  inhabit  is  properly  nothing  else  but  the  sediment 
of  the  other ;  that  is,  that  pure  earth  above,  called  Ether. 
In  this  more  perfect  earth,  everything  has  a  perfection 
answering  to  its  qualities.  The  trees,  flowers,  fruits  and 
mountains  are  charmingly  beautiful;  they  produce  all  sorts 
of  precious  stones  of  incomparable  perfection  of  clearness 
and  splendor;  those  we  so*  much  esteem,  as  jasper, 
emeralds  and  sapphire,  are  not  comparable  to  them.  *  * 
They  have  sacred  groves,  and  temples  actually  inhabited  by 


58  DOCTRINES   OP   SPIRITUALISTS. 

the  gods,  who  give  (us)  evidence  of  their  presence  bj 
oracles,  divinations,  inspirations,  and  all  other  sensible 
signs." 

Referring  to  his  eccentricities,  Socrates  says:  "The  cause 
of  this  is  that  which  you  have  often  and  in  many  places 
heard  me  mention;  because  I  am  moved  by  a  certain  divine 
and  spiritual  influence,  which  also  Melitus,  through  mockery, 
has  set  out  in  the  indictment.  This  began  with  me  from 
childhood,  being  a  kind  of  voice  which,  when  present,  always 
diverts  me  from  what  I  am  about  to  do,  but  never  urges  n^e 
on.  But  this  duty,  as  I  said,  has  been  enjoined  on  me  by 
the  Deity,  by  oracles,  by  dreams,  and  by  every  mode  by 
which  any  other  divine  decree  has  ever  enjoined  anything  for 
man  to  do." — Gary's  Translation. 

Reasoning,  he  asked  Miletus,  "Do  we  not  take  these 
deities,  or  demons,  for  the  gods,  or  the  children  of  gods?" 

"Yes,  doubtless!" 

"  Therefore,  you  acknowledge,"  said  Socrates,  "  that  I 
believe  there  are  demons,  and  that  these  demons  are  gods. 
*  *  *  ^  I  have  likewise  told  you  that  I  received  my 
orders  from  God  himself,  by  oracles,  dreams,  and  all  other 
methods  Deity  makes  use  of  to  make  known  his  pleasure  to 
men." 

M.  Dacier,  in  a  note,  (Apol.  of  Soc,  p.  393)  says: 
"  Socrates  learned  of  Pythagoras  that  demons,  or  angels  and 
heroes — that  is,  devout  men  and  saints,  are  the  sons  of  God, 
because  they  derive  from  him  their  being,  as  light  owes  its 
origin  to  a  luminous  body." 

Socrates  being  inquired  of  why  he  busied  himself  so  much 
ill  private,  and  did  not  appear  in  the  conventions  of  the 
people,  gives  the  following  reason: 

"The  thing  that  hindered  me  from  doing  so,  Athenians, 
was  this  familiar  spirit,  this  divine  voice,  that  you  have  often 
heard  of,  and  which  Melitus  has  endeavored  so  much  to 
ridicule.  This  spirit  has  stood  by  me  from  my  infancy.  It 
is  a  voice  that  does  not  speak  but  when  it  means  to  take  me 
off  from  some  resolution.     It  never  presses  me  tc  undertake 


ANCIENT    HISTORIC    SPIRITUALISM  —  GRECIAN.  59 

ain'thing,  but  it  alwa^'S  thwarted  me  when  I  meant  to  meddlr 
in  affairs  of  state."     (Apol.  Soc.  p.  398.) 

Turnins^  at  a  certain  time  to  his  friend  Simmias,  he  dis 
coursed  thus  of  virtue  and  the  future  immortal  life:  ^' What 
I  have  said  ought  to  sufficiently  show  that  we  should  labor 
all  our  lives  to  acquire  virtue  and  wisdom,  since  we  have  so 
great  a  reward  proposed  to  us.  and  so  bright  a  prospect 
before  us.  As  for  you,  my  dear  Simmias  and  Cebes,  and  all 
you  of  this  company,  you  will  follow  me  shortly.  My  hour 
is  come;  and  as  a  tragic  poet  would  say,  the  surly  pilot  calls 
me  aboard.  It  is  time  I  should  go  to  the  bath;  for  I  think 
it  better,  before  I  drink  the  poison,  to  be  washed  in  order  to 
save  the  woman  the  trouble  after  I  am  dead." 

Crito,  inquiring  what  orders  he  had  to  leave  with  reference 
to  his  children  and  other  affairs,  further  asked :  "How  will 
you  be  buried?"  "Just  as  you  please,"  said  Socrates,  "if  I 
do  not  slip  from  you.'*  At  the  same  time,  looking  upon 
them  with  a  gentle  smile,  said:  "I  cannot  attain  my  end  in 
persuading  Crito  that  this  is  Socrates  who  discourses  with 
you;  *  >5=  *  a.nd  still  he  fancies  that  Socrates  is  the 
thing  that  shall  shortly  see  death.  He  confounds  me  with 
my  corpse;  and  in  that  view  asks  how  I  will  be  buried.  And 
all  this  after  the  long  discourse  I  made  to  you  lately  in  order 
to  show,  that,  as  soon  as  I  shall  have  taken  the  poison,  I  shall 
stay  no  longer  with  you;  but  I  shall  part  from  hence  and 
enjoy  the  felicity  of  the  blessed."     (See  Ap.  Phedon,  p.  247.) 

That  erudite  Platonist,  Proclus,  writing  upon  the  demon 
of  Socrates,  commenced  his  forty-third  chapter  on  the  "  The- 
ology of  Plato"  thus:  "Let  us  speak  concerning  the  demons 
who  allotted  the  superintendance  of  mankind  *  *  *  The 
most  perfect  souls  choose  a  life  conformable  to  their  presid- 
ing god,  and  live  according  to  a  divine  demon.  Hence  the 
Egyptian  priest  admired  Plotinus  as  being  controlled  (on 
account  of  the  purity  of  his  life)  by  a  divine  demon.  And 
with  great  propriety  also  does  Socrates  call  his  demon  a 
god,   for  he   belonged   to   the    first   and    highest    demons. 


60  DOCTRINES   OF   SPIRITUALISTS. 

Acc  :)rclinglj,  Socrates  was  most  perfect,  being  governed  by 
sucb  a  presiding  power,  and  conducting  himself  by  the  will 
of  such  a  leader  and  guardian  of  his  life." 

Remembering,  then,  that  Pythagoras  resided  for  a  period 
of  years  in  Egypt,  that  Socrates  was  personally  acquainted 
with  some  of  the  disciples  of  Pythagoras,  the  anointed 
Samian,  and  that  Plato  was  a  pupil  of  Socrates,  we  perceive 
the  naturalness  of  the  descent  from  age  to  age  of  these 
spiritualistic  teachings  relative  to  the  gods  and  demons — 
to  their  gentle  guardianship  and  continuous  converse  with 
mortals,  and  the  unspeakable  blessedness  pertaining  to 
those  Elysian  fields  that  gladden  with  molten  glory  the 
homes  of  the  angels. 

Jesus,  borne  in  infancy  "down  into  Egypt,"  early 
connected  with  the  Essenians,  afterwards  initiated  into  the 
psychologic  and  mediumistic  wisdom  of  the  older  Eastern 
mysteries,  as  well  as  conversant  with  those  glittering 
thoughts  that  dropped  like  pearls  from  the  pens  of  the 
Persian  poets,  natural!}^  imbibed,  in  consonance  with  his 
susceptible  organism,  and  taught  some  of  the  Platonian 
doctrines,  among  which  was  the  "ministry  of  spirits,"  pre- 
existence,  and  the  ascent  of  souls  into  that  Paradisiacal 
house  of  "  many  mansions." 

Every  scholarly  theologian  knows  that  the  parables  of 
Jesus,  as  well  as  John's  Gospel,  abound  in  Platonisms. 
Accordingly,  the  orthodox  commentator.  Dr.  Campbell, 
frankly,  yet  doubtless  unwillingly,  confessed  that,  "  Our 
Lord's  descriptions  of  the  abodes  of  departed  spirits  were  not 
drawn  from  the  writings  of  the  Old  Testament;  but  have  a 
remarkable  affinity  to  the  descriptions  which  the  Grecian 
poets  have  given  of  them." 

Nonnus  informs  us  that  "  there  was  a  statue  at  Delphi 
which  emitted  an  inarticulate  voice."  The  spirits  were  thus 
experimenting  with  the  solid  stone  to  produce  a  Memuon 
in  Greece,  as  they  do  these  days  train  the  muscles  which 
they  wish  to  use  in  writing  or  speaking ;  but  doubtless  found 
the  material  too  perverse  for  their  purpose. 


ANCIENT    HISTORIC    STIRirUALISM CRKCTAN.  61 

Epimenides,  a  prominent  poet,  living  in  Solon's  time, 
possessed  the  remarkable  power  with  which  certain  media 
of  our  day  are  gifted,  of  leaving  his  body,  and,  conducted  by 
immortal  guides,  visiting  friends  gone  before,  vast  galleries 
of  art,  and  the  magnificent  temples  of  the  ascended  sages  of 
antiquity.  Those  trances  continued  so  long,  and  he  revealed 
80  strange  truths  upon  returning  into  the  mortal  tenement, 
that  he  ^vas  held  in  high  repute — almost  revered  among  the 
Athenians  during  his  life,  and  at  death  they  gave  him  a  place 
[*mong  their  gods.  The  rarely  endowed  Hermodorus  pos- 
sessed this  same  power.  Aided  by  the  controlling  magnetic 
influences  of  spirit-guardians,  he  frequently  quitted  the  phys- 
ical name,  and  explored  the  matchless  beauties  that  obtain 
in  the  land  of  souls.  So  Aristides  the  Just  gives  a  full 
account,  in  the  "Orationes  Sacrge,"  of  his  visits  to  the  heal 
ing  temples  of  ^sculapius.  Many  of  his  dreams  proved  to 
be  prophecies,  and  in  his  trances  he  mentioned  things  as  then 
taking  place  in  distant  countries.  These  were  afterwards 
verified,  as  in  like  cases  with  Swedenborg. 

In  the  night  vision,  Apollo  and  ^sculapius  came  to  Epi- 
menides and  requested  him  to  compose  and  sing  verses; 
something  which  he  had  never  thought  of  attempting  in  his 
normal  state.  He  so  did,  however,  with  eminent  success. 
His  feelings,  while  in  this  inspirational  condition,  he  said, 
were  most  delightful.  After  his  sight  was  more  thoroughly 
opened,  he  declared  that  Plato,  Demosthenes  and  Sophocles 
often  stood  near  the  foot  of  his  couch  and  conversed  with 
him.  All  through  his  marked  career  immortal  demons  seem 
to  have  accompanied  him,  to  whom  he  owed  not  only  his 
health,  but  much  of  his  wisdom.     (See  Aris.,  by  Canter.) 

Thus  runs  Spiritualism  through  all  Grecian  history  in 
converse  with  gods,  angels,  demons,  spirits,  and  the  appear- 
ance of  apparitions,  symbols  and  psychological  forms,  in 
connection  with  visions,  trances  and  healings.  The  mythol- 
ogy of  the  Greeks,  even  with  all  its  shadowy  vagaries,  was 
infinitely  superior  to  modern  theology.  The  clergy,  with 
few  exceptions,  have  persisted  in  wickedly  misrepresenting 


62  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

the  ethical  teachings  and  theological  doctrines  that  prevailed 
in  Greece  for  many  centuries  before  the  Christian  era. 

Occasionally  a  clergyman  has  dared  to  be  just.  Such  was 
the  Rev.  J.  B.  Gross.  In  his  "Introduction  to  Heathen 
Religion,"  he  says:  "Perhaps  on  no  subject  within  the 
ample  range  of  human  knowledge  have  so  many  fallacious 
ideas  been  propagated  as  upon  that  of  the  gods  and  the 
worship  of  heathen  antiquity.  ^N'othing  but  a  shameful 
ignorance,  a  pitiable  prejudice  or  the  contemptible  pride, 
which  denounces  all  investigations  as  a  useless  or  a  criminal 
labor,  when  it  must  be  feared  that  they  will  result  in  the 
overthrow  of  pre-established  systems  of  faith  or  the  modifi- 
cation of  long-cherished  principles  of  science,  can  have  thus 
misrepresented  the  theology  of  heathenism,  and  distorted — 
nay,  caricatured — its  forms  of  religious  worship.  It  is  time 
that  posterity  should  raise  its  voice  in  vindication  of  violated 
truth,  and  that  the  present  age  should  learn  to  recognize  in 
the  hoary  past,  at  least,  a  little  of  that  common  sense  of 
which  it  boasts  with  as  much  self-complacency  as  if  the 
prerogative  of  reason  was  the  birth-right  only  of  modern 
times." 

The  aim  of  priests,  in  throwing  contempt  upon  the 
mythologies  of  India,  Egypt  and  Greece,  was  doubtless  to 
enable  them  longer  to  continue  their  hold  upon  the  mind 
through  their  superstitions,  and  the  mouldy  traditions  of 
church  fathers.  But  the  great  N'ewton  said,  that  "ancient 
mythology  was  nothing  but  historical  truth  in  a  poetical 
dress."  Bacon  said,  it  "consisted  solely  of  moral  and  meta- 
physical allegories."  The  learned  Bryant,  as  quoted  by  Sir 
William  Jones,  said,  that  "all  the  heathen  divinities  were 
only  different  representatives  of  deceased  progenitors." 
Jamblichus,  author  of  Life  of  Pythagoras,  admits  that 
the  "  gods  and  demons  of  the  mythologic  ages,  were  the 
good  and  heroic  of  earth's  immortalized,  yet  giving  oracles 
to  the  living." 

From  the  facts  adduced  in  Grecian  history,  we  learn  what 
the  modern  church  of  Christians  dare  not  recognize,  that  the 


ANCIENT   HISTORIC    SPIRITUALISM  —  GRECIAN.  63 

images  of  those  ancient  gods,  some  beautiful  and  others 
hideous,  according  to  the  plane  of  spiritual  perception,  were 
used  as  oracles,  the  same  as  tables,  musical  instruments  and 
planchetts  for  spiritual  communication,  are  these  days. 
Theirs  were  doubtless  better  media,  being  forms  of  the 
spirits  themselves,  made  by  their  order  for  mediumistic 
purposes.  Originally,  those  "idols,"  as  churchal  worshipers 
scornfully  call  them,  were  the  channels  of  sweet  and  holy 
communication  with  presiding  angels  once  inhabiting  the 
earth-sphere. 

Beda,  treating  of  the  "Seven  Wonders  of  the  World," 
tells  us,  that,  in  the  capitol  at  Rome,  there  were  statues 
(mediumized  by  spirit  magnetism)  set  up  for  all  the  prov- 
inces conquered  by  the  Romans.  'J'hese  were  images  of 
their  gods,  on  the  breasts  of  which  were  written  the  names 
of  the  nations.  On  their  necks  little  bells  were  hung,  and 
priests  were  appointed  to  watch  them  day  and  night.  When 
one  of  these  rung  by  spirit  influence,  they  knew  at  once 
what  nation  was  about  to  rebel  against  the  Romans,  of  which 
due  notice  was  immediately  given  to  the  civil  authorities, 
who  made  provision  accordingly. 

By  means  of  bells  the  spirits  gave  many  of  their  commu- 
nications to  the  Jewish  priests,  whose  garments  were 
festooned  with  them,  making  music,  under  right  conditions, 
delicious  as  that  we  these  days  hear  at  the  musical 
entertainments  of  spiritual  circles. 

M.  de  L'Ancre,  in  his  book  entitled  "  The  Inconstancy  of 
Demons  and  Evil  Spirits,"  tells  us,  "That  in  the  town  of 
Bourdeaux,  there  was  an  honest  canon  of  a  church  who  had 
his  house  for  sometime  troubled  (haunted)  with  spirits;  and 
that,  among  other  things,  there  was  heard  almost  every  night 
a  kind  of  music,  like  that  of  the  espirut,  set  with  little  bells, 
so  pleasant,  that  this  partly  took  from  him  the  fear  and 
apprehension  of  the  spirits." 

With  the  ancient  spiritualists  communicat'ons  by  sounds 
were  carried  to  a  high  state  of  perfection,  showing  the 
delicacy  of  their  spiritual  batteries,  and  tha  beautiful  degree 


64  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

of  their  musical  science  blending  with  their  leligion. 
Undoubtedly  they  discovered  a  certain  mental  ratiocinatior, 
between  sound  and  moral  character,  and  made  it  practical 
in  the  methods  above  described.  Developed  by  the  Spiritual 
Philosophy,  it  is  already  known,  that  every  person,  as  is  every 
object  in  the  outer  world,  is  ensphered  in  an  atmospheric 
magnetism  exactly  of  the  quality  of  the  inner  aifection  and 
the  co-relative  molecular  texture  of  the  body.  The  intona- 
tions of  every  person's  voice  i,s  a  sure  index  of  such 
qualities — indeed  of  the  very  spirit  itself.  Man  is  organized 
on  the  eternal  principles  of  music,  and  is  keyed  to  certain 
grades  of  love  and  thought  as  a  musical  instrument  to 
sounds  which  it  is  intended  to  produce.  This  spiritual 
keying  of  the  character  determines  taste  in  music.  Hence, 
certain  sounds  are  agreeable  to  some;  to  others  disagreeable. 
Deep,  solemn  psalmody,  will  stir  the  soul  of  the  churchal 
worshiper;  such  sounds  enter  into  rapport  with  him 
interiorly;  hence  the  response.  The  lute  or  the  guitar  will 
better  charm  the  passional  lover  or  melancholy  dreamer. 

Gottschalk,  the  great  pianist,  speaking  of  musical  philos- 
phy,  states  that  '^  the  flame  of  the  candles  oscillates  to  the 
quake  of  the  organ.  A  powerful  orchestra  near  a  sheet  of 
water  ruffles  its  surface.  *  *  *  Ti^g  sound  of  the  bassoon 
is  cold;  the  notes  of  the  French  horn,  at  a  distance,  and  of 
the  harp,  are  voluptuous.  The  flute,  playing  softly  in  the 
middle  of  the  register,  calms  the  nerves."  Swedenborg 
discovered  the  practicability  of  this  musical  ratiocination  in 
the  spiritual  world,  when  he  said,  all  the  speech  of  the  angels, 
"  at  the  close  of  every  sentence,  has  its  termination  in  unity 
of  accent,  which  is  merely  in  consequence  of  the  divine 
influx  into  their  souls  respecting  the  unity  of  God." 

We  see,  therefore,  a  must  beautiful  truth  in  Jamblichus' 
explanation  of  musical  divination  by  the  use  of  priestly  bells. 
He  says  in  substance :  "  Various  kinds  of  motions  in  the 
world  answer  to  various  orders  of  the  gods.  Melodies  agree 
according  to  the  principles  of  their  motions  (undulatory 
vibrations),  and  flow  to  cei'tain  gods  to  which  they  are  most 


ANCIENT    HISTORIC    SPIRITUALISM  —  GRECIAN.  6l' 

agreeable,  or  with  which  they  are  most  in  correspondentiai 
'harmony.  The  gods  being  every  where,  bestow  their  gifts 
where  the  sounds  and  melodies  chiefly  agree  to  them. 
Being  aflfected  thereby,  they  insinuate  themselves  inspira- 
tionally  into  our  spirits,  and  wholly  work  in  us  by  their 
musical  essence  and  power." 

Pj'thagoras  maintained  that  a  divinity  lay  hidden  in  these 
sacred  ringings  of  bells  on  the  statues,  and  in  the  ears  they 
sounded  as  "the  voice  of  the  gods." 

Plutarch  says,  "  their  sound  is  only  heard  by  those  who 
keep  their  minds  in  a  calm  and  composed  state,  undisturbed 
by  passions."  Then  he  avers  we  can  hear  the  holy  melodies 
of  "  sacred  and  demoniacal  men." 

Luther  being  on  an  animal  plane,  coarse  and  vulgar,  yet 
herculean  in  will,  heard  spirit  sound  answering  exactly  in 
quality  of  melody  with  this  plane  of  his  life;  and  it  was  to 
him  ''as  if  a  w^ind  went  out  of  his  head,  the  devil  driving 
it !  "' 

Mahomet  heard  these  melodies,  whilst  in  a  trance,  giving 
him  most  heavenly  answers  to  his  questions. 

The  beautiful  legend  of  the  ancients  is  not,  therefore, 
without  foundation  in  psychological  law.  The  bells  of  their 
temples  were  consecrated  to  divine  worship  ;  when,  therefore, 
they  were  rung  ''offensive  genii"  took  flight,  afi:righ ted  at 
the  sounds.  When  the  bell  of  the  soul — the  sensorium — is 
struck  with  angelic  thought,  there  is  a  response  with  the 
angels,  and  all  evil  influences  are  repelled  as  darkness  before 
the  light  of  the  rising  sun.  How  natural  then  for  those 
devotees  to  reverence  these  oracular  images !  As  they 
departed  from  the  spiritual  senses  to  the  more  external,  the 
virtue  of  that  worship  dimmed  into  shadow  and  gloom, 
leaving  only  the  bare  image,  void  of  soul,  like  the  church  to- 
day, worshiping  symbols  whose  spiritual  substance  has 
departed;  or,  like  spirit-rappings,  and  the  other  physical 
phenomena,  when  wretchedly  abused  by  monopolizing  and 
sensuous  Spiritualists.  Let  us  beware  how  we  use  the  divine 
oracles,  lest  our  worship  be  also  meaningless  idolatry!     The 


66  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

readers  attention  is  called  to  the  following  facts,  culled  from 
the  many,  exactly  parallel : 

"  There  are  many  oracles  among  the  Greeks,  many  also  among  the 
Egyptians,  many  in  Africa,  and  many  here  in  Asia.  But  these  give 
responses  neither  without  priests,  nor  without  interpreters.  Here, 
however,  Apollo  is  self-moved,  and  performs  the  prophetic  office  wholly 
by  himself ;  and  this  he  does  as  follows :  When  he  wishes  to  "com- 
municate," he  moves  in  his  place,  whereupon  the  priests  forthwith  take 
him  up.  Or  if  they  neglect  to  take  him  up,  he  sweats,  and  comes  forth 
into  the  middle  of  the  room  ;  when,  however,  others  bear  him  upon  their 
shoulders,  he  guides  them,  moving  from  place  to  place.  At  length  the 
chief  priest  supplicating  him,  asks  him  all  sorts  of  questions.  If  he 
does  not  assent,  he  moves  backwards ;  if  he  approves,  he  impels  forward 
those  who  bear  him,  like  a  charioteer.  Thus  they  arrive  at  responses. 
They  do  nothing  except  by  this  method.  Thus  he  gives  predictions 
concerning  the  seasons,  foretells  storms,  &c.  I  will  relate  another  thing 
also  which  he  did  in  my  presence.  The  priests  were  bearing  him  upon 
their  shoulders — he  left  them  below  upon  the  ground,  while  he  himself 
was  borne  aloft  and  alone  into  the  air.''     (Lucian.  de  Syria  Dea.) 

"  A  little  before  the  misfortune  of  the  Lacedsemonians  at  Leuctra, 
there  was  heard  the  clashing  of  arms  in  the  temple  of  Hercules,  and 
the  statue  of  Hercules  sweat  profusely.  At  Thebes,  at  the  same  time, 
in  the  temple  of  Hercules,  the  folding  doors,  which  were  fastened  with 
bolts,  suddenly  opened  of  themselves,  and  the  arms  which  were  hung 
upon  the  walls  were  found  thrown  upon  the  ground.  There  were  other 
signs  preceding  this  calamity.  The  statue  of  Lysander  at  Delphi, 
which  the  Lacedaemonians  had  placed  there  after  his  great  naval  victory 
over  the  Athenians,  appeared  crowned  with  weeds  and  bitter  herbs, 
and  the  two  golden  stars  which  had  been  suspended  there  as  offerings 
in  honor  of  Castor  and  Pollux,  who  had  assisted  them  visible/  in  that 
battle,  fell,  and  disappeared."     (  Cicero,  de  Divinatione  i.  94.) 


The  cultured  Greeks,  eminently  poetic  and  spiritual, 
cherished  views  concerning  death  quite  similar  to  the  spirit- 
ualists of  this  century.  Plato  was,  to  them,  a  central  inspi- 
ration. Touched  and  thrilled  hy  his  sublime  doctrines,  they 
considered  this  world  the  only  Hades  ;  heaven,  their  native 
home,  and  all  death  an  ascent  to  the  higher  life. 

Avoiding  descent  for  incarnation,  and  remaining  on  high, 
with  the  gods,  was  real  life,  because  life  in  the  spirit ;  while 
descent  into  this  world  was  death.     Macrobius  writes  in  hia 


ANCIENT    HISTORIC    SPIRITUALISM  —  GRECIAN.  67 

"  dream  of  Scipio,"  "  Here,  on  earth,  is  the  cavern  of  despair, 
the  infernal  region.  The  river  of  oblivion  is  the  wandering 
of  the  mind,  forgetting  the  majesty  of  its  former  life;  and 
a  thinking  residence  in  the  body  the  only  life."  (Lib.  i. 
cap.  9).  To  the  clear  vision  of  those  inspired  Grecians,  dying 
was  ascending  to  the  soul's  primal  home— the  society  of  the 
celestial  gods  in  the  "^arry  -eg-o'js  c^"  a  easm-eless  space. 


Chapter    ia. 


ROMAN. 


**For  thrice  ten  thousand  holy  demons  rove 
This  breathing  world,  the  delegates  of  Jove, 
Guardians  of  man,  their  glance  alike  surveys 
The  upright  judgments  and  the  unrighteous  ways." 

"  Thus  we  see  how  man's  prophetic  creeds 
Made  gods  of  men,  when  Godlike  were  their  deeds." 

Rome !  proud,  imperial,  seven-hilled — Rome  !  tliat  with 
nod  could  crown  kings  and  hury  empires — Rome!  boastful 
of  her  Cicero  and  her  Csesars — Rome  !  that  humbled  Carth- 
age— Rome  !  with  her  deep  blue  skies,  southern  winds,  and 
ruins  rich  in  ancient  legends  !  she  accepted,  even  in  her  most 
famous  ages,  Greece  for  her  schoolmaster.  Her  philosophy, 
religion,  science,  art,  and  poetry — her  dramas,  and  even  the 
very  laws  so  long  honored  in  Athens,  were  brought  from 
Greece  and  introduced  among  the  Romans  more  than  three 
hundred  years  before  Christ.  Greek  art  was  copied  by 
Roman  artists.  Greek  professors  taught  the  Grecian  philoso 
phy  to  the  more  promising  of  the  youth  of  Rome,  and  all 
were  taught  to  respect  the  oracles  and  reverence  the  gods 
and  genii  that  appeared  to,  guarded,  and  conversed  with 
mortals. 

Sallust,  a  Platonic  philosopher,  author  of  a  treatise  "  On 
the  Gods  and  the  world,"  says  :  "But  we,  when  we  are  good, 
are  conjoined  with  the  gods  through  similitude ;  but  when 
evil,  we   are   separated  from   them   through  dissimilitude. 

68 


ANCIENT    HISTORIC    SPIRITUALISM  —  ROMAN.  69 

And  while  we  live  according  to  virtue,  we  partake  of  the 
gods,  but  when  we  become  evil,  we  cause  them  to  become 
our  enemies;  not  that  they  are  angry,  but  because  guilt  pre- 
vents us  from  receiving  the  illuminations  of  the  gods,  and 
subjects  us  to  the  power  of  avenging  demons.         *         * 

"  Since  the  providence  of  the  gods  is  everywhere  extended, 
a  certain  latitude,  or  fitness,  is  all  that  is  requisite  in  order  to 
receive  their  beneficent  communications.  But  since  so  much 
providence  is  displayed  in  the  last  things,  it  is  impossible  that 
it  should  not  subsist  in  such  as  are  first:  besides,  divinations 
and  the  healing  of  bodies,  take  place  from  the  beneficent 
providence  of  the  gods." 

Cicero  says  : — "Now,  as  far  as  I  know,  there  is  no  nation 
whatever,  however  polished  and  learned,  or  however  barba- 
rous and  uncivilized,  which  does  not  believe  it  possible  that 
future  events  may  be  indicated,  understood  and  predicted  by 
certain  persons." — De  Divinatione,  lib.  1. 

He  further  says,  "To  natural  divination,  belongs  that 
which  does  not  take  place  from  supposition,  observations,  or 
well-known  signs  ;  but  arises  from  an  inner  state  and  activ- 
ity of  the  mind  in  which  men  are  enabled  by  an  unfettered 
advance  of  the  soul  to  foretell  future  things.  *  *  *  jf 
we  turn  to  ridicule  the  Babylonians  and  Caucasians,  who 
believe  in  celestial  signs,  and  who  observe  the  number  and 
course  of  the  stars ;  if,  as  I  said,  we  condemn  all  these  for 
their  superstitions  and  folly,  which,  as  they  maintain,  are 
founded  upon  the  experience  of  fifty  centuries  and  a  half; 
let  us,  in  that  case,  call  the  belief  of  ages  imposture — let 
us  burn  our  records,  and  say  that  everything  was  but  imag- 
ination. But  is  the  history  of  Greece  a  lie,  when  Apollo 
foretold  the  future  through  the  oracles  of  the  Lacedaemo- 
nians and  Corinthians  ?  I  will  leave  all  else  as  it  is,  but  this 
I  must  defend,  that  the  gods  influence  and  care  for  human 
affairs.  The  Delphian  oracle  would  never  have  become  so 
celebrated,  nor  so  overwhelmed  by  presents  from  every  king 
and  every  nation,  if  every  age  had  not  experienced  the  truth 
of  its  predictions." 


70  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

Among  the  most  noted  of  the  ancient  oracles  were  Delp'r  3, 
Dodona  and  Trophonius.  Delphi  was  situated  at  the  foot  of 
Mount  Parnassus,  historic  as  one  of  the  haunts  of  the 
muses.  Upon  this  mountain  there  was  a  cave,  from  which 
arose  electric  exhalations  intoxicating  the  brain.  It  was  dis- 
covered by  a  shepherd  youth,  who,  upon  experiencing  its 
mfluences,  was  caused  to  pronounce  strange  words,  and 
foretell  future  events.  Around  this  cave  were  erected 
several  temples,  one  of  which  was  magnificent.  To  it,  all 
nations  flocked  for  responses.  Apollo,  a  Grecian  god,  was 
the  spiritual  intelligence  that  gave  the  oracle.  Poets,  ora- 
tors, and  generals  frequently  consulted  the  Delphian  medium, 
receiving  responses  and  prophecies.  This  medium,  through 
whom  the  oracle  was  delivered,  was  a  priestess  called  Pythia. 
Apollo  did  not  always  give  the  communications  orally,  but 
impressed  the  leading  ideas  upon  her  mind,  and  she  uttered 
them  in  her  own  language,  thus  affecting  or  stamping  them 
with  her  own  peculiarities. 

The  Pythia  prepared  herself  for  the  spiritual  control  of 
Apollo  by  purifications  and  fastings  ;  then,  being  so  charged 
by  him  with  the  electric  fluid,  that  her  hair  stood  upright, 
eyes  wild,  and  even  the  foundation  of  the  temple  shaking, 
she  uttered  strange,  mystic  words,  which  were  collected  by 
prophets  and  poets,  and  woven  into  verse.  Here  is  a  sample, 
designed  to  inspire  the  halting  nature  of  Agesilaus : 

*'  Sparta,  beware,  though  thou  art  fierce  and  proud, 
Lest  a  lame  king  thy  ancient  glories  shroud  ; 
For  then  'twill  be  thy  fate  to  undergo 
Tedious  turmoil  of  war  and  sudden  woe." 

Plutarch,  as  translated  from  the  Greek  by  Philips,  gives 
the  reason  why  the  Pythian  priestess  ceased  her  oracles  in 
verse.  The  classical  Anthon  says,  that  besides  the  "  Sacred 
Oaks"  at  Dodena,  "dreams,  visions,  and  preternatural 
voices  also  announced  the  will  of  the  divinities."  These 
oracles  continued  to  speak  from  the  immortal  realms,  as  may 
be   proven    from   Plutarch    and    Suetonius,   long    after   the 


ANCIENT    HISTORIC    SPIRITUALISM  —  ROMAN.  71 

advent  of  Christianity.  Nero  and  Julian  both  consulted 
them  and  received  satisfactory  answers.  It  also  appears 
from  the  edicts  of  the  Emperors  Theodosius,  Gratian  and 
Valentinian,  that  oracles  existed  and  were  consulted  as  late 
as  A.  D.  358.  These,  in  fact,  have  existed  in  all  ages  and 
under  ar  civilizations,  as  ancient  records  demonstrate.  They 
were  simply  phases  of  mediumship.  The  utterances  of  these 
lords,  gods,  angels,  demons,  and  spirits,  have  been  termed,  in 
different  periods,  oracles,  scriptures  and  inspirations. 

The  Romans,  ambitious  for  fame,  not  only  consulted  the 
prophetic  spirits  of  their  own  empire,  but  each  year  sent 
authorized  individuals,  as  embassadors  extraordinary,  to 
consult  with  the  most  noted  oracles  of  Greece.  Livy's  his- 
tory of  Rome  covers  a  period  of  time  six  hundred  years  from 
the  laying  of  its  foundation  to  the  date  of  its  highest  mili- 
tary power  as  a  commonwealth,  and  that  popular  English 
writer,  Wm.  Howitt,  tells  us  that  "  in  Livy  alone  he  had 
marked  above  ffty  instances  of  his  record  of  the  literal  ful- 
fillment of  dreams,  oracles,  prognostics,  by  soothsayers  and 
astrologers." 

The  Rev.  E.  L.  Magoou,  in  his  '*  Grand  Drama  of  Human 
Progress,"  writing  of  Romulus,  says : 

"  We  are  told  by  Livy,  that  soon  after  his  disappearance 
from  among  men,  the  spirit  of  Romulus  visited  the  distin- 
guished senator,  Proculus  Julius,  and  addressed  him  as 
follows  : — *  Go,  tell  my  countrymen  it  is  the  decree  of 
heaven,  that  the  city  I  have  founded  shall  become  the  mis- 
tress of  the  world.  Let  her  cultivate  assiduously  the  mili- 
tary art.  Then  let  her  be  assured,  and  transmit  the 
assurance  from  age  to  age,  that  no  mortal  power  can  resist 
the  arms  of  Rome.'  Strict  and  persevering  obedience  to 
this  counsel  eventually  caused  that  colossal  power  to  extend 
itself  from  Siberia  to  the  Great  Desert,  and  from  the  Ganges 
to  the  Atlantic." 

When  the  Roman  Emperor  Tiberius  left  the  city  for 
Caprese,  the  soothsayers — a  certain  order  of  mediums  gifted 
with  the  power  of  foretelling  the  future — said,  with  deep 


72  DOCTRINES    OF   SPIRITUALISTS. 

solemnity,  he  would  never  again  enter  the  eternal  citj. 
This,  Tacitus  admits,  was  literally  fulfilled.  These  are  his 
words :  *'  That  Tiberius  would  return  no  more  was,  as 
prophesied,  verified  by  tbe  event."  Further  illustrating  the 
peculiarities  of  Tiberius'  life,  in  the  sixth  book  of  the 
Annals,  and  weighing  the  testimony  as  to  oracular  prophe- 
cies, and  also  to  what  extent  gods  and  demons  exercised 
guardianship  over  and  came  into  conscious  relations  with 
mortals,  he  adds  : 

*'  That  though  what  is  foretold  and  the  events  that  follow 
may  often  vary,  the  fallacy  is  not  to  be  imputed  to  the  ar 
itself  (that  is,  the  iruth  of  mediumship),  but  to  the  vanity 
of  pretenders  to  a  science  respected  b\'  antiquity,  and  in 
modern  times  established  by  undoubted  proof." 

The  principal  events  pertaining  to  the  reign  of  Nero  were 
foretold  by  the  son  of  Thrassalus,  a  noted  prophetic  seer  of 
that  time. 

Pliny  the  younger  relates  marvelous  things  that  occurred 
within  his  range  of  knowledge,  as  foretold  by  oracles  or 
predicted  in  visions  and  dreams. 

The  assassination  of  Caracalla  was  foreshadowed  to  him  in 
a  dream. 

Sylla  was  apprised  of  his  death  by  a  strange  vision  the 
very  night  before  his  departure  from  earth. 

Also,  on  the  night  that  Attila  passed  to  the  sunlit  shores 
of  immortality,  Marius  dreamed  that  Attila's  bow  was 
broken  ;  and  according  to  Plutarch,  Brutus  himself,  in  a 
grim  twilight  hour,  was  met  by  Caesar's  spirit,  that  said, 
"I  shall  meet  thee  at  Philippi !"  and  at  Philippi  Brutus 
fell 

Presentiments,  spirit  voices,  portents,  bodings,  visions, 
dreams  and  shadowy  warnings  have  frequently  preceded 
individual  and  almost  uniformly  national  disasters. 

Vespasian,  probably  the  most  unassuming,  and  certainly 
one  of  the  most  eminent,  of  the  Roman  emperors,  was  the 
possessor  of  several  mediumistic  gifts,  the  most  prominent 
of  wh'^h  were  seeing  and  healing.     Several  instances  are 


AXCIEXT    HTSTOUIC    SPfTlITrA  IJ^M ROMAN.  73 

recorded  of  his  restoring  the  sick  and  causing  the  blind  to 
see  by  spirit  power.  While  in  Ak^xandria  he  restored  a 
paralytic  hand  by  a  simple  touch.  Both  Suetonius  and 
Strabo  confirm  these  accounts.  The  critical  Tacitus,  writing 
of  Vespasian  and  his  spiritual  endowments,  relates  the  flict 
of  his  distinctly  seeing  Basilides  clairvoyantly,  when  many 
miles  distant  in  body.  He  also  mentions  his  bringing  sight 
to  the  ray  less  eyes  of  an  Alexandrian  moving  in  the  humbler 
walks  of  life,  who  came  to  him  by  the  advice  of  Serapis,  a 
departed  spirit,  highly  esteemed  among  the  Egyptians. 
These,  and  multitudes  more  of  so-called  miraculous  works, 
are  much  better  attested  by  history  than  those  ascribed  to 
the  Man  of  IlTazareth.  All  are  entitled  to  more  or  less 
credit.  Tacitus  further  says,  that  Vespasian  concluded  that 
the  gods  had  favored  him  with  supernatural  vision,  and 
divine  gifts,  which  gave  him  confidence  that  his  future 
reign  would  be  cared  for  by  the  gods,  and  such  guardian 
demons  as  inhabit  the  higher  elysian  lands  of  heaven. 

Based  upon  research,  then,  and  in  the  exercise  of  our  best 
judgment,  we  accept  as  true  most  of  the  wonders,  prodigies, 
visions,  trances,  spiritual  gifts  and  superhuman  works  of 
those  elder  ages,  that  (preceded  by  trials  and  crosses)  ulti- 
mately crowned  the  mediumistic  and  martyred  of  India, 
Egypt,  Persia,  Greece,  Rome  and  Judea — accept  them, 
whether  carved  on  pyramids,  penned  on  parchment-scrolls, 
or  written  in  Biblical  or  Sybilline  books — accept  them,  first, 
because  conformable  with  the  clearest  methods  of  spiritual 
analysis  and  humanity's  divinest  intuitions;  and  secondly, 
because  reasonable — because  corroborated  by  hosts  of  eye- 
witnesses in  all  ages  and  countries,  and  confirmed  by  thou- 
sands of  media  in  the  present.  The  general  law  is  ever 
the  same;  the  mingling  of  races  in  connection  with  country, 
civilization  and  other  conditions,  have  merely  modified  the 
manifestations.  Jesus  declared  that  '* greater  works"  than 
his  should  be  done  in  the  future. 

But  why  adduce  further  testimony?  The  historic  past  is 
comparable   to    a   measureless   wilderness,    all    dotted   and 


74  DOCTRINES   OF   SPIRITUALISTS. 

gemmed  with  vallej^s  and  mountains,  flowers,  fruits,  a- a 
crystal  streams,  symbolizing  immortal  truths — truths  with 
millions-phased  fore-gleams  and  finger-marks  demonstrating 
an  actual  converse  with  those  exalted  and  immortalized  souls 
that  traverse  the  upper  kingdom  of  God  !  Hence,  Sophocles 
affirmed  that — 

"  This  is  not  a  matter  of  to-day, 
Or  yesterday,  but  hath  been  from  all  time." 

A.nd  Hesiod,  in  strains  as  mellifluous  as  undying,  told  of— 

*'  JSrial  spirits  designed 
To  be  on  earth  the  guardians  of  mankind." 

— while  the  grandly  inspired  Goethe  sang  in  sweet  refrain — 

**  The  spirit  world  is  not  closed — 
Thy  tense  is  closed — thy  heart  is  dead." 


ECTURE     III 


HRISTIAN       pPIRITUALISM. 


Lhaptei\^  X. 


THE   FORESHADOVVINQ. 


**God  has  taught  but  one  religion, 
One  in  every  age  and  land. 

«  *  *  ■9fr  «■ 

God  has  written  but  one  Bible — 
Love — compressed  in  one  quick  word." 

Religion  is  natural.  The  religious  sentiment  is  an  essen- 
tial principle  of  the  human  soul.  Like  the  true  and  the 
beautiful,  like  moral  consciousness,  it  is  in  humanity  perma- 
nent, eternal. 

Life's  emotional  stream  from  the  manger  in  Nazareth  to 
the  "  rappings "  in  Rochester,  has  been  bridged  with 
startling,  spiritual  phenomena.  So  devious  its  windings,  the 
patient  student  of  antiquity  often  wearies  in  tracing  it 
among  the  lights  and  shadows  that  alternately  dance  in 
brightness,  or  darken  into  sullen  midnight  along  its  shelving 
shores. 

The  genuine  historian  living  in  two  worlds — the  past  and 
the  present — is  necessarily  philosophic  and  imaginative,  paint- 
ing visible  forms,  as  well  as  transcribing  passing  events. 
Though  gathering  these,  and  weighing  facts  correctly — 
the  hard  granitic  facts  characterizing  given  epochs — he 
experiences  deeper  delights  in  arranging  them  in  orderly 
series,  and  deducing  therefrom  such  great  logical  conclusions 
as  tally  with  the  mighty  march  of  the  ages. 

During  those  fearful  mediaeval  years,  when  a  cultured 
paganism  and  Pauline   Christianity,  brooded  by  a  chrysalis 

77 


78  DOCTRINES   OF   SPIRITUALISTS. 

papacy,  were  struggling  for  social  and  political  mastery,  there 
were  treasured  in  costly  tomes  the  records  of  strange  psycho- 
logic wonders,  inner  visions,  imperial  prophecies,  and  grand 
demonstrations  of  immortality.  These,  exhumed  and  ana- 
lyzed under  the  meridian  sjin  of  this  century,  stand  aa 
phenomenal  witnesses  of  spirit  intercourse — echoes  from  the 
gods  flowing  in  melodious  lights,  and  flaming  with  promise 
along  the  stately  steps  of  humanity. 

The  nights  of  those  dust-buried  centuries  had  their  stars-, 
the  angels,  their  blessed  missions;  all  the  old  legendary 
periods,  their  representative  personages.  Balanced  upon  the 
topmost  waves  of  circling  eras,  each,  in  turn,  exclaimed  : 
"It  is  I,  be  not  afraid  ! "  Startling  the  world,  founding  new 
institutions,  they  disappeared  for  still  greater,  to  breathe 
diviner  utterances,  prophesy  of  rosier  Junes,  riper  harvests; 
and  bring  to  a  thirsting  people  fresher  draughts  from  the 
ever-flowing  fountains  of  inspiration. 

Among  the  eminent  leaders  that  arose  under  Asian  skies, 
was  Joshua — He  was  so  called  by  his  friends  and  Hebrew  coun- 
trymen, signifying  savior.  The  Syrian  world  expected  some 
remarkable  leader.  "  Coming  events  cast  their  shadows 
before.*'  This  thought  impregnated  the  national  atmos- 
phere. It  was  truly  a  propitious  period.  There  was  weeping 
by  Babylon's  streams;  a  suspense  of  spiritual  life;  a  literal 
reign  of  ritualism  in  Judea.  The  Pharisees  corresponded  to 
New  England  Puritans,  being  the  most  prominent  of  the 
Jewish  sects.  In  Hillel,  disciple  of  Shammai,  and  other 
grave  Rabbins,  they  had  interpreters  of  the  law;  but  the 
masses  and  more  advanced  thinkers  of  the  times,  demanded 
an  exposition  of  the  soul;  its  forces,  sympathies,  capacities 
and  infinite  possibilities.  Demand  brings  supply.  When 
India,  China,  Greece,  called,  there  were  born  to  them, 
saviors — Chrishna,  Confucius,  Pythagoras. 

The  coming  of  these  religious  chieftains,  as  with  Jesus, 
was  foretold  in  dreams  and  prophecies;  foretold,  because  the 
thought  concerning  them,  and  their  mediatorial  mission  on 
earth,  were  born  and  shaped  in  ihe  Angel   Congresses  ot 


CHRISTIAN   SPIKTTUALTSM  —  FonF.SIIADOWTNO.  79 

supernal  worlds.  The  world  of  spirits  is  the  world  of  causes; 
this,  of  shadows  and  effects.  All  broad  humanitarian  plans, 
for  redemptive  purposes,  are  first  conceived  in  the  higher 
realms  of  spiritual  existence;  then  inflowed  by  the  natural 
law  of  influx  to  the  sensitive  of  earth,  to  take  form,  be  enun- 
ciated, and  ultimately  outworked  into  practical  life.  Ascended 
Hebrew  prophets,  Persian  magi,  and  other  sages  of  the  Orient, 
long  in  the  heavens,  planned  the  birth  of  a  more  spiritual 
organism — a  better  type  of  Shemitic  manhood,  to  lift  the 
Jewish  nation  out  of  its  chronic  clannishness  and  dwarfing 
formalisms,  into  the  diviner  regions  of  absolute  religion — 
that  perpetual  gospel  destined  finally  to  bless  all  nations. 

Law  is  infinite.  All  conceptions,  births,  deaths,  are 
governed  by  fixed  and  established  laws;  therefore^  natural. 
Alary  was  susceptible  to  spirit  influence.  Immortals  knowing 
it,  and  seeing  her  to  be  a  future  mother,  overshadowed  her 
with  their  piercing,  moulding  magnetism.  To  this  end  the 
angel  Gal)riel,  through  the  mediumistic  Evangelist,  Luke, 
said  to  her  :  "The  Holy  Spirit  shall  come  upon  thee,  and  the 
power  of  the  Highest  shall  overshadow  thee."  Jesus  there- 
fore was  precocious  and  loving ;  impressional  and  clair- 
voyant ;  a  mortal  brother  of  the  immortal  gods  and  goddesses 
who  helped  fashion  him  mentally,  that  he,  inspired  by  them, 
and  a  "legion  of  angels,"  might  aid  in  fashioning  future 
ages. 

Speaking  the  Syriac  dialect,  mixed  with,  if  not  mostly 
Hebrew,  his  better  words,  dropping  like  gems  from  crowns, 
were  gilt-edged,  and  alive  with  the  logic  of  love  and 
intuition.  His  life  so  rich  and  suggestive  to  a  spiritual  phi- 
losopher, so  vague  and  mystical  to  an  external  matter-of-fact 
Jew,  was  a  blended  Odyssey  and  tragedy,  with  legions  of 
inspiring  powers  behind  the  scenes.  On  Calvary  he  died  a 
martyr !  His  principles  live  forever ;  while  he,  a  perpetual 
inspiration  to  this  planet,  mediatorially  preaches  univeraaJ 
love  as  a  redemptive  power  in  all  worlds. 


Chaptei^  XI, 


lilYTHIC. 


"Men  groped  to  find  the  wrecks  of  primal  matter, 
And  wasted  long  years  in  putting  bone  to  bone ; 

Babel  revives  where  the  world's  gossips  clatter, 
And  fossil  words  adjust  to  fossil  stone. 

O'er  fossil  homilies  the  churches  nod 

Stone  heart,  stone  service,  and  a  stony  God ! " 

Thinkers  of  the  living  present  will  necessarily  study  the 
man  of  Nazareth  from  three  planes  of  thought : 

I.  The  historic  Jesus,  copied  from  the    Krishna  of  India: 

II.  The  theologic  Jesus,  a  church  monster  of  the  '^  Christian 
Fathers :" 

III.  The   natural   Jesus,   an   enthusiastic  Spiritualist    of 

Judea. 

Naturally  worshipful,  all  nations  have  had  their  Jehovahs, 
Krishnas,  Christs,  Bibles,  and  priests  to  expound  them.  The 
oldest  of  these  are  traceable  to  India.  Under  tropical  skies 
there  summered  the  most  ancient  civilizations.  They  had 
their  arts,  sciences,  ethics,  poets,  authors,  the  literature  of 
which,  has  streamed  in  such  unbroken  channels  down  the 
intermediate  ages,  as  to  overwhelm  with  astonishment  the 
first  scholars  of  Europe. 

Sir  William  Jones  said  their  "Literature  seemed  absolutely 
Inexhaustible,  reminding  him  of  infinity  itself."  Johnson 
^rote :  "  The  Iliad  of  Homer  numbers  twenty-four  thousand 
verses;  but  the  Mahabharata  of  the  Hindoos  four  hundred 
thousand;  and  the  Puranas   comprehending  only  a   small 

80 


CHRISTIAN    SriRITUALISM  —  MYTHIC.  8] 

portion  of  their  religious  books,  extend  to  two  millions  ol 
verses.  Among  the  more  valued  of  their  religious  works,  h 
the  Bhagavat-Gita,  Krishna's  revelation.  This  is  termed  b^ 
a  classical  German  scholar :  "  A  magnificent  Thespesian 
poem,  abounding  in  metaphysics,  ethics,  and  sublime  religious 
doctrines."  The  same  author  classes  Jesus  among  the  "first 
of  the  Judean  poets."  Considered  as  prose  or  poetry,  it  has 
richer  veins  of  thought  than  the  book  of  Job,  and  bears 
certain  oriental  relations  to  the  gospel  of  John. 

The  Bhagavat-Purana,  the  18th  of  the  Puranas,  is  devoted 
to  the  history  of  Krishna.*  Some  of  the  Upanishads  dwell 
largely  upon  the  beauty  and  purity  of  his  life.  He  was  the 
eighth  Avater  of  Vishnu,  the  first  person  in  the  adorable 
*'  Trinity "  of  that  portion  of  the  Hindoos  occupying  the 
more  central  parts  of  India.  This  divine  descent,  according 
to  the  best  authority,  took  place  in  the  beginning  of  the  Kali- 
Yuga,  or  "  counted  age" — an  "  age  of  vice  and  iron,"  about 
four  thousand  years  since ;  and  was  for  the  purpose  of 
redeeming  humanity.  Vishnu,  thus  descending,  took  upon 
nimself  human  form,  becoming  Krishna  incarnate — "  God 
manifest  in  the  flesh."  It  is  the  same  as  the  "  verhum 
caro  factum  est" — the  word  made  flesh — of  St  John,  who, 
towards  the  close  of  an  eventful  life,  became  acquainted,  in 
consequence  of  his  scholarship  and  high  spiritual  culture, 
with  the  doctrines  of  the  Eastern  Magi,  a  class  of  philoso- 
phers called  Gnostics.  These  Gnostics  had  derived  most  of 
their  teachings  from  the  "  mysteries"  of  the  Gymnosophists 
of  India. 

The   close   and   almost   i^erfect    parallelism    between   the 
Krishna   of   the   Bhagavat-Gita,    and    the    Christ   of    the 


*Sir  Wm.  Jones  invariably  spells  the  name  of  this  celebrated  person, 
Chrishna ;  Dr.  Weisse,  a  distinguished  German  writer,  Krishna.  Orthodox 
clergy,  anxious  to  make  Jesus  a  purely  original  character,  without  (he  least 
authority,  spell  the  name  differently.  An  eminent  English  Divine  says:  <'The 
cliurches  meanly  and  pitifully  alter  the  spelling  of  the  name  from  the  original 
orthography,  (Chrishna)  which  rests  on  the  high  authority  of  Sir  Wm.  Jones, 
invariably  print  it  as  Krishna,  or  Kreeshna,  to  screen  the  resemblance  of  the 
name  to  Christ  from  the  eye's  observance."'      Either  spcUinj;  is  correct 


82  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

Gospels,  is  of  itself  sufficient  evidence  to  show  that  one  was 
borrowed  from  the  other:  or  that  they  were  both  copies 
from  some  older  myth. 

Krishna  is  often  represented  as  a  savior,  the  same  as 
Jesus  Christ.  Considered  originally,  the  Supreme  God,  he 
condescended  to  descend  and  take  upon  himself  the  sinful 
§tate  of  humanit3',  as  Christ  is  said  to  have  done,  by 
orthodox  theologians.  Of  royal  origin,  he  was  born  in  a 
lowly  condition.  Immediately  after  the  birth  of  Krishna, 
he  was  saluted  by  divine  songs  from  the  Devatas — angels — 
as  was  the  Nazarene.  Surrounded  by  shepherds,  thoroughly 
impressed  with  his  greatness,  he  was  visited  by  the  Magi, 
wise  7nen,  among  whom  was  an  Indian  prophet^  called  JS'ared, 
who,  hearing  of  his  fame,  examined  the  stars,  and  declared 
him  of  celestial  descent.  His  parents  "Nanda,"  the  father, 
and  "  Deva  Maia,^^  tiie  divine  mother,  were  compelled  to 
flee  by  night  into  a  remote  country,  for  fear  of  a  tyrant 
who  had  ordered  all  the  male  children  of  those  reo-ions 
to  be  slain.  This  story,  says  the  eminent  Godfrey  Hig- 
gins,  (Anac.  b.  iv.  s.  ii.)  "  Is  the  subject  of  an  immense 
sculpture  in  the  cave  at  Elephanta,  where  the  suspicious 
tyrant  is  represented  destroying  the  children."  The  date 
of  this  sculpture,  Higgins  further  says  ;  *'  is  lost  in  the  most 
remote  antiquity." 

Krishna  was  sent  to  a  tutor  to  be  instructed;  and 
instantly  astonished  him  by  his  profound  wisdom,  as  did 
Christ,  the  Jewish  doctors,  in  the  temple.  Krishna  is  called 
Ileri,  and  Ileri,  in  Sanscrit,  means  shepherd,  as  well  as  savior. 
Christ  was  termed  the  "shepherd  of  the  sheep.  Krishna 
had  a  forerunner  in  his  elder  brother,  Horn,  as  had  Jesus  in 
his  cousin,  John  the  Baptist.  Rom  assisted  Krishna,  the 
"  Good  Shepherd,"  in  purifying  the  world  from  the  pollution 
of  evil  demons.  To  show  deep  humility,  Krishna  washed 
the  feet  of  the  Brahmins;  so  did  Jesus  the  disciples.  Upon 
one  occasion  a  woman  poured  on  Kiishna's  head  a  box  of 
ointment,  for  which  he  cured  her  of  an  ailment.  Matthew's 
gospel  assures  us  that  a  woinau  anointed  the  bead  of  Jesus 


CHRISTIAN    SPIRITUALISM — MYTHIC.  SS 

ill  a  similar  manner.  One  of  Krishna's  first  miracles,  wag 
the  cure  of  a  leper.  It  was  also  among  the  first  of  Christ's. 
During  the  succeeding  career  of  Krishna,  he  taught  inspi- 
rational truths,  raised  the  dead,  was  crucified,  descended  into 
Hades — the  under  world  of  spirits — whence  he  returned,  and 
ascended  to  Yaicontha,  Heaven,  or  the  proper  Paradise  of 
Vishnu,  who  is  the  Father,  or  first  person  of  the  Hindoo 
Trinity. 

There  are  further  similarities  in  the  lives  of  Krishna  and 
Christ.  Krishna  had  a  favorite  disciple — Arjuna — the  third 
son  of  Pandu,  corresponding  to  the  "disciple  that  Jesus 
loved."  The  first  section  of  the  Bhagavat-Gita,  is  devoted 
to  the  grief  of  the  loved  Arjuna.  The  church  historians, 
Eusebius  and  Athanasius,  state,  that,  when  Joseph  and  Mary 
arrived  in  Egypt,  they  took  up  their  abode  in  Thebais — in 
which  was  a  superb  temple  of  Serapis.  Entering  the 
temple,  miracles  were  wrought.  The  full  account  is  recorded 
in  the  Evangelium  Infantile. 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Maurice  acknowledges  that  "  The  Arabic 
edition  of  the  gospel  of  the  infancy  of  Jesus,  mentions 
Matarea  as  the  place  where  the  infant  savior  resided  during 
his  absence  from  Judea,  until  the  death  of  Herod.  Krishna 
was  born  at  Mathura.  The  Evangelium  Infantise  mentions 
the  place  where  Jesus  was  born,  as  filled  with  light  surpass- 
ing that  of  the  noonday  sun.  The  moment  Krishna  was 
born  the  whole  room  became  splendidly  illuminated,  and 
the  heads  of  the  father  and  mother  were  surrounded  with 
rays  of  glory.  These  similarities  are  so  striking,  that  none 
can  fail  of  perceiving  why  the  "  Gospel  of  the  Infancy  of 
Jesus "  was  voted  non-canonical  by  a  council  of  Christian 
Bishops.  The  book  was  considered  inspired,  however,  by 
many  of  the  church  fathers,  and  was  highly  esteemed  by 
St.  Irenseus,  Bishop  of  Lyons,  who  sufiTered  martyrdom, 
A.  D.  202. 

Krishna  of  India,  and  Christ  of  Judea,  both  born  in  Asia, 
were  so  literally  identical  in  general  character,  as  well  as  in 
the  minor  events  and  cii'cumstances  of  their  lives,  that  none 


84  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

can  deny  their  close  historic  connexion.  Which,  then,  the 
origwal  f  which  the  copy  ? 

The  Bhagavat-Gita,  one  of  the  most  sacred  of  the  Puranas, 
contai.is  an  account  of  Krishna's  life — the  Gospels  of 
Christ's  life.  Both  were  announced  as  saviors.  Which  was, 
therefore,  first,  the  Bhagavat-Gita,  or  the  ]N'ew  Testament  ? 
With  profound  oriental  scholars  there  can  be  little,  perhaps 
no  difference  of  opinion. 

The  sacred  Hindoo  book— the  Bhagavat-Gita — lays  claim 
to  nearly  the  highest  antiquity  of  any  of  the  Brahminical 
compositions.  That  very  competent  judge,  Rev.  Mr.  Mau- 
rice admits  there  is  ample  proof  to  show  its  existence  full  four 
thousand  years  since.  Sir  Wm.  Jones,  whose  orthodoxy  was 
never  questioned,  affirms  that  the  name  of  Krishna,  and  the 
general  outline  of  his  history,  were  long  anterior  to  the  birth 
of  our  Saviour,  and  probably  to  the  time  of  Homer,  we 
know  very  certainly.'^  This  is  authority  from  an  unwilling 
witness. 

The  celebrated  English  scholar,  Godfrey  Higgins,  says, 
(Anac.  b.  iv.  c.  i.  p.  129,):  "•  The  sculptures  on  the  walls  of 
the  most  ancient  temples — temples  by  no  one  ever  doubted 
to  be  long  anterior  to  the  Christian  Era — as  well  as  written 
works  equally  old,  prove,  beyond  a  possibility  of  doubt,  the 
superior  antiquity  of  the  history  of  Krishna  to  that  of  Jesus." 
Higgins  is  very  poor  authorit3\ 

Dr.  Prichard  admits,  (Anal.  Egypt.  Mythol.  p.  261,)  "  That 
the  history  of  Krishna  is  to  be  found  in  all  the  caves  of 
Ellora,  Elephanta  and  others  known  to  be  the  oldest." 

The  learned  Baldseus  observes,  (Prof.  Uni.  Hist.  p.  13,) 
that  every  "part  of  the  life  of  Krishna  has  a  near  resem- 
blance to  the  history  of  Christ;  and  that  the  time  Avlien 
Krishna's  miracles  were  performed  was  during  the  Duap- 
parajug,  wliich  ended  tliirty-one  hundred  years  before  the 
C'liristian  Era." 

In  consonance  with  tlie  above,  the  Cantab  declares:  "If 
there's  meaning  in  ivonh^  this  Christian  Missionary  admits, 
(according  to  Higgins,)  that  the  history  of  Christ  is  founded 


CHRISTIAN    SriKITUALISM  —  MYTHIC.  85 

on  that  of  Krishna/'  This  author  furtlier  declares,  (Anac. 
b.  X.  c.  ii.  p.  593,)  "That  even  the  most  blind  and  credulous 
of  devotees  must  allow  that  we  have  the  existence  of  the 
Krishna  of  the  Brahmins  in  Thrace  many  hundred  years 
before  the  birth  of  Jesus  Christ."     Not  admitted. 

Justin  assures  us,  "  that  the  Erythraen  Sybil,  which 
foretold  the  things  that  should  happen  to  Jesus  Christ,  also 
told  that,  in  a  neighboring  country,  between  the  Indus  and 
Ganges,  there  was  a  person,  Krishna,  long  before  Christ's 
time,  to  whom  were  ascribed  nearly  all  the  things  that  were 
ascribed  to  Jesus  Christ."  It  is  further  demonstrated  upon 
the  authority  of  a  "  passage  of  Adrian^  that  the  worship  of 
Krishna  was  practiced  in  the  time  of  Alexander  the  Great, 
(330  B.  C.)  in  the  Temple  of  Mathura,  one  of  the  most 
famous  of  India."  These  testimonies  settle  the  matter  of 
time. 

Maurice,  in  h  ;s  elaborate  work,  frankly  confesses  that  the 
Evangelists  must  have  copied  from  the  Bhagavat-Gita  and 
other  Puranas  ;  or  the  Brahmins  from  the  Evangelists.  But 
we  have  shown  from  the  most  incontestable  sources,  that  the 
sacred  Bhagavat-Gita  antedated  the  time  of  Christ  by  at 
least  a  thousand,  and  far  more  probably,  two  thousand  years ; 
and  that  the  celebrated  Krishna  lived  and  wrought  his 
marvelous  miracles  long  oefore  the  appearance  of  the 
Nazarene. 

The  educated  protestant  divines  of  France,  and  the  more 
erudite  of  the  German  theologians,  admit  the  astonishing 
similarity  in  the  Asiatic  saviors,  Krishna  and  Christ.  This, 
in  a  good  measure,  accounts  for  the  prevalence  of  German 
Rationalism.  The  American  clergy,  with  few  exceptions, 
narrow,  conceited  and  sectarian,  prefer  reveling  in  blissful 
ignorance  relative  to  the  antiquity  of  India,  China,  Egypt, 
and  the  saviors  and  sacred  books  of  Asia,  from  which  ours 
have  been  borrowed,  or  clandestinel}^  purloined. 

From  travel,  and  profound  antiquarian  research,  Rev.  Mr. 
Maurice  confesses  that  tlic  principal  incidents  in  the  narrated 
life  of  Jesus  Christ — the  birth  at  midnight,  the  chorus  of 


80  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

angels,  the  cradling  among  shepherds,  the  child's  conceal- 
ment in  a  foreign  country,  from  fear  of  a  tyrant;  the  early 
wisdom  manifest,  the  curing  of  the  leper,  the  raisings  of  the 
dead,  etc.,  were  preluded  in  Krishna — all  prophesied  in  the 
prior  life  of  Krishna,  except  the  "  immaculate  conception." 

This  vacuum  is  readily  supplied  in  the  history  of  Pythag- 
oras, born  nearly  six  centuries  before  Jesus,  on  the  Isle  of 
Sanios.  Of  him  Jamblichus  writes  :  *'  ^o  one  can  doubt  that 
tlie  soul  of  Pythagoras  was  sent  to  mankind  from  the  empire 
of  God,  *  *  *  being  an  attendant  on  the  god,  Apollo; 
or  co-arranged  with  him  in  some  other  way." 

It  was  the  custom  of  the  earlj  Church  Fathers  to  travel  for 
information.  This  was  especially  the  case  with  Papias, 
llegesippus,  Justin  and  others.  These,  visiting  the  most 
enlightened  portions  of  the  East,  mingled  the  teachings 
there  found,  concerning  Pythagoras,  with  those  relating  to 
the  Indian  Krishna,  and  from  the  *'  supernataral  "  connected 
with  the  two,  they  constructed  the  mythologic  portions  of 
the  gospel  histories. 

When  young,  Pythagoras  went  to  Tyre  and  Sidon,  to  be 
schooled  in  their  learning.  Then  he  journeyed  to  Egpyt,  to 
be  taught  in  the  wisdom  of  her  priests  and  seers,  as  did 
Jesus,  according  to  the  testimony  of  Athanasias  and  the 
scholarly  M.  Denon.  After  this  Pythagoras  was  borne  to  Bab- 
ylon by  Cambyses,  the  restorer  of  the  Jewish  temple  and 
religion,  and  initiated  into  the  divine  mysteries  of  the 
Persian  Magi;  and  finally,  he  traveled  into  India,  where  he 
became  acquainted  with  the  ethics  and  occult  sciences  of  the 
Brahmins.  It  is  not  only  natural,  but  very  evident  that  this 
inspired  Samian  derived  many  of  his  metaphysical  doctrines 
from  the  Gymnosophic  school  of  philosophy.  From  exten- 
sive travel,  this  commingling  could  hardly  be  avoided. 

The  method  of  Pythagoras'  conception  is  equally  as  mirac- 
ulous as  that  ascribed  to  Jesus.  They  are,  in  fact,  identicaL 
In  the  writings  of  Jamblichus,  who  quotes,  for  authorities, 
l^^pimenides,  Xenocrates  and  Olimpiodoru'^,  all  living  long 
prior  to  tlie  birth  of  Christ,  may  be  found  a  full  account  of 


CHRISTIAN    SnillTUALISM — MYTHIC.  87 

the  immaculate  conception  and  birth  of  Pythagoras.  That 
truly  learned  and  candid  schohir,  Godfrey  Higgins,  writes 
(Anac.  c.  iv.  p.  150,) : 

''  The  first  striking  circiiuistance  in  which  the  history  of  Pythaojoraa 
agrees  with  the  liistory  of  Jesus,  is,  that  they  were  natives  nearly  of 
the  same  country  ;  the  former  being  born  at  Sidon,  the  latter  at  Beth- 
lehem, both  in  Syria.  The  father  of  Pythagoras,  as  well  as  the  father 
of  Jesus,  was  prophetically  informed  that  his  wife  should  bring  forth  a 
son,  who  should  be  a  benefactor  to  mankind.  They  were  both  born 
when  their  mothers  were  from  home  on  journeys ;  Joseph  and  his  wife 
having  gone  up  to  Bethlehem  to  be  taxed,  and  the  father  of  Pythag- 
oras having  traveled  from  Samos.  his  residence,  to  Sidon,  about  his 
mercantile  concerns.  Pythias,  the  mother  of  Pythagoras,  had  a 
connexion  with  an  Apolloniacal  specter,  or  ghost,  of  the  god  Apollo, 
which  afterward  appeared  to  her  husband,  and  told  him  that  he  must 
have  no  connexion  with  his  wife  during  her  pregnancy — a  story 
evidently  the  same  as  that  relating  to  Joseph  and  Mary.  From  these 
peculiar  circumstances,  P3"thagoras  was  known  by  the  same  identical 
title  as  Jesus,  namely,  the  Son  of  God,  and  was  supposed  by  the 
multitude  to  be  under  the  influence  of  divine  inspiration. 

"  When  young,  he  was  of  a  very  grave  deportment,  and  was  cele- 
brated for  liis  philosophical  appearance  and  wisdom.  He  wore  his  hair 
long,  after  the  manner  of  the  Nazarites,  whence  he  was  called  the 
long-haired  Samiau." 

Jamhlichus  himself  says :  "  The  Pythian  oracle  foretold 
to  Mnesarchus,  the  father  of  Pythagoras,  that  his  wife  would 
bring  forth  a  son,  surpassing  in  beauty  and  wisdom  all  that 
ever  lived,  and  who  would  be  of  the  o-reatest  advantao-e  to 
the  human  race,  in  everything  pertaining  to  the  life  of  man. 
The  infant,  upon  coming  into  existence,  was  called  Pythag- 
oras; signifying  by  this  appellation  that  such  an  offspring 
was  predicted  to  him  by  the  Pythian  Apollo. 

Pythagoras  professed  to  visit  the  spiritual  world,  and  hold 
converse  with  departed  spirits,  and  described  the  condition 
of  Homer,  Hesiod  and  others  there.  His  pure,  holy  and 
divinely  wonderful  life,  makes  it  impossible  to  doubt  his 
sincerity.  It  was  said  of  him,  that  he  '•  knew  every  thing, 
and  was  right  in  every  thing."  It  was  asserted  by  many 
that  he  was  "  the  Son  of  God." 

Underlying  all  mytlioses  are  pearls  of  wisdom  and  sprink- 
lings of  truth.     The  crucified  reformers  uf  to-day  become 


88  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

the  gods  of  to-morrow.  This  applies  to  the  Kazarene 
From  the  lives  of  Krishna  and  Pythagoras,  were  gathered 
and  woven  the  principal  events  connected  with  the  historic 
Jesus  of  the  Evangelists.  He  is  a  copy  of  prior  saviors. 
This  was  the  work  of  the  Church  Fathers  of  the  first 
centuries,  and  in  perfect  keeping  with  their  general  char- 
acter !  Ambrose,  Augustine,  St.  Jerome,  and  others,  were 
corrupted  with  the  villainous  idea,  that  "  it  was  right  to  lie 
for  the  sake  of  religion.''  Mosheim  tells  us  (Yol.  i.  p.  130,) 
the  doctrine,  *'  that  it  was  not  only  lawful,  but  commendable 
to  deceive  and  lie  for  the  sake  of  truth  and  piet\^,  early 
spread  among  the  Christians  of  the  second  century !  "  This 
church  historian  further  admits  (Vol.  i.  p.  155,)  "  that  pious 
frauds  and  impositions  were  auiong  the  causes  of  the  extension 
of  Christianity ! " 

''  And  saviors,"  said  Israel's  prophet,  "  shall  come  up  on 
Mount  Sion."     Mark  the  jt?ZMr«7  / 

There  has  been  a  stiiking  sameness  in  character,  to  sev- 
eral of  the  Oriental  saviors.  The  truth  is,  every  one  is  a 
savior  just  so  far  as  he  instructs,  helps,  and  saves  others  by 
his  precepts  and  practical  life. 

It  is  sad,  almost  pitiable,  to  note  that  a  few  of  the  unedu- 
cated of  this  century  have  denied  the  very  existence  of  the 
Nazarene.  How  true  that  "  A  little  learning  is  a  danger- 
ous thing."  No  scholar,  philosopher,  archaeologist,  or  erudite 
historian  has  ever  presumed  to  deny  the  existence  of  Jesus 
of  Nazareth,  who,  according  to  the  records,  "went  about 
doing  good."  y 


pHAPTEI^    XII, 


THEOLOGIC. 


**The  ages  sweep  around  him  with  their  wings, 
Like  angered  eagles  cheated  of  their  prey." 

"One  rosy  drop  from  Jesus'  heart 
"Was  worlds  of  seas  to  quench  God's  ire." 

The  accepted  "  Savior  "  of  Christian  nations  to-day,  is  the 
iheologic  Christ;  a  strange  Hebraic  hybrid;  half  God,  half 
man — a  church  monster,  shapen  by  the  old  ecclesiastic 
Fathers  and  Eoman  Bishops,  from  the  most  worthless 
portion  of  the  cast-off  drippings  of  Pagan  traditions. 

There  is  no  prophecy  of  this  Christ  of  the  church  in  the 
Old  Testament  Scriptures.  Saying  nothing  of  the  writings 
of  Colenso,  that  so  completely  undermine  the  Pentateuch, 
nor  of  those  deep  thinking  German  divines  that  have  shaken 
the  canonical- voted  books  of  the  Old  Testament  to  their  very 
foundations,  we  merely  refer  to  some  eminent  English  divines. 
Dr.  Ekerman  and  Dr.  Geo.  S.  Clark  clearly  show  that  the 
Old  Testament  contains  no  prophecy  relating  to  the  person, 
Jesus  Christ.  (Class.  Jour,  vol,  xxxiii.  p.  47.)  Dr.  Adara 
Clark,  the  annotater  of  the  Bible,  contends  that  the  prophecy 
of  Isaiah — '^  A  Virgin  shall  conceive  and  bear  a  son  j"  and  ^^  call 
his  name  Immanuel,''  does  not  mean  Christ;  but  Isaiah's  own 
son  !  "    Dr.  Clark  further  observes : 

"  It  is  humbly  apprehended  that  the  young  woman  usually  called  the 
virgin  is  the  same  with  the  prophetess,  and  Immanuel  is  to  be  named 

89 


90  DOCTRINES   OF   SPIRITUALISTS. 

bj  his  mother,  the  same  with  the  prophet's  son,  whom  he  was  ordered 
to  name  Maher-shalal-hash-baz."     (Class.  Jour.  vol.  i.  p.  637.) 

That  there  were  general  and  dimly  defined  prophecies 
enunciated  by  the  more  mediumistic  of  the  Hebrew  seers, 
relating  to  coming  saviors,  and  looking  to  the  future  spir- 
itual illumination  of  their  nation,  is  evidently  true. 

The  Arian  controversy  concerniug  the  derivation  and 
deity  of  Christ,  commencing  early  in  the  fourth  century, 
between  Alexander,  Bishop  of  Alexandria,  and  Arius,  one 
of  his  presbyters,  finally  terminated  by  the  Bishop's  assert- 
ing: "That  the  Son  was  not  only  of  the  same  eminence 
and  dignity,  but  also  of  the  same  essence  with  the  Father." 
(Mosh.  vol.  i.)  Accordingly,  we  have,  in  the  Athanasian 
creed,  received  by  all  evangelical  Christians,  ihis^  concerning 
Jesus  Christ: 

"  The  Son  is  of  the  Father  alone,  not  created,  but  begotten. 

"  The  God-head  of  the  Father,  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
is  all  one,  the  glory  equal,  the  majesty  co-eternal.         *         *         '^ 

"  Such  as  the  Father  is,  such  is  the  Son,  and  such  is  the  Holy 
Ghost. 

''  The  Father  is  Almighty,  the  Son  is  Almighty,  and  the  Holy  Ghost 
Almighty. 

"  And  yet  there  are  not  three  Almighties,  but  one  Almighty.  *  * 

"  He,  therefore,  that  would  be  saved,  must  thus  think  of  the 
Trinity." 

After  God  had  made  the  world  in  "  six  days,"  and  Adam 
from  the  "  dust  of  the  ground,"  he  placed  him  in  a  garden, 
and  causing  a  "deep  sleep"  to  fall  upon  him,  "took  one  of 
his  ribs  and  made  he  a  woman."  The  Bible  says  it.  This 
woman  "frail,"  and  conversing  with,  was  tempted  by  the 
"serpent,"  which  serpent,  the  Methodist,  Dr.  Adam  Clarke, 
thinks  was  an  ape,  or  an  orang-outang !  (Com.  vol.  i.  c. 
iii.  p.  47.) 

Eve  yielding  to  the  temptation,  and  finding  the  fruit 
pleasant,  "gave  to  Adam."  They  fell!  And  being  the 
federal  heads  of  the  race,  falling,  they  involved  all  their 
unborn  posterity,  even  universal  humanity,  subjecting  it  to 


CnRISTIAN   SPIRITUALISM — TIIEOLGIC.  91 

the  "miseries  of  this  life,  death  itself,  and  the  pains  of  Hell 
forever."     So  affirms  the  creed. 

It  was  a  fearful  crisis.  God  was  exceedingly  angry  at 
Adam  and  Eve  for  doing  just  what  he  knew  they  would  do. 
The  sword  of  divine  justice  was  raised.  The  Throne  was 
ill  danger! 

«''Twas  a  seat  of  dreadful  wrath. 


And  shot  devouring  flame  ; 

Our  God  appeared  consuming  fire, 

And  vengeance  was  his  name." 

Deific  justice  had  been  wronged.  Atonement  must  be 
made.  The  threatened  penalty  must  be  inflicted  upon  the 
race  of  man,  or  some  substitute.  A  "plan"  is  devised. 
God,  the  Son,  equal  with  the  Father,  stepping  in  between 
an  offended  God  and  offending  man,  says :  "  Spare  the 
guilty  race  of  humanity !  open  a  way !  glut  thy  vengeance 
upon  me!  I  will  take  upon  myself  the  penalty  !  I  will  die  a 
substitute!"  God  the  Father  hears — relents.  God  the  Son, 
corresponding  to  incarnations  of  India,  shapes  himself  in 
human  form;  is  born  of  the  Virgin  Mary;  suffers  under 
Pontius  Pilot — "dead  and  buried."  Watts  versifies  the 
Christian  idea  thus: 

"Well  might  the  sun  in  darkness  hide, 
And  shut  his  glories  in,  ' 
When  Christ,  the  mighty  Maker,  died 
For  man,  the  creature's  sin." 

Mark  the  phrase — the  "mighty  Maker  died" — a  dead 
God!  dying  for  the  purpose  of  permitting  rebellious  sinners 
to  go  unpunished,  to  escape  the  penalty  of  the  law,  providing 
they  believe  in  this  "  divine  mystery" — the  atonement.  After 
this  saciificial  death  of  an  innocent  Son,  opening  the  way  for 
the  guilty  to  escape  the  demands  of  justice,  God  the  Father 
becom:s  reconciled — pleased.     Watts  sings  it: 

"Rich  were  the  drops  of  Jesus'  blood 
That  calmed  his  frowning  face, 
That  sprinkled  o'er  the  burning  throne, 
And  turned  his  wrath  to  gvaoe." 


92  DOGTRTNRS    OF    SPTRTTUALrSTS. 

—  — — "  He  quenched 


His  Father's  flaming  sword 
In  his  own  vital  blood." 

Another  Christian  poet  says : 

<'With  one  tremendous  draught  of  blood, 
He  drank  ddmnation  dry  !  " 

This  prevailing  theologic  dogma  of  the  atonement,  with  a 
mythologic  Jesus  as  principal  actor,  is  termed  the  "  plan  of 
salvation  ! " 

Salvation,  in  its  more  philosophic  sense,  is  soul-growth — 
divine  unfoldment  from  the  innermost  outward,  and  a 
strictly  personal  matter.  My  savior  is  the  Christ  principle. 
It  was  born  with  me — is  in  me — is  me.  It  was  before  the 
wandering  Galilean;  before  Abraham ;  before  astral  worlds 
commenced  their  stately  march  through  the  siderial 
heavens — pre-existent — eternal !  ITeither  the  merits  of 
Buddha,  Chrishna,  nor  Christ  Jesus,  are  transferable,  like 
bundles  of  merchandise.  Self-salvation,  self-sanctification, 
were  the  doctrines  taught  by  that  eminent  Judean  Spirit- 
ualist, Jesus.  Said  he — "  1  testify  of  myself."  Again — "  1 
sanctify  myself.'^  Sound  and  sensible  !  The  "  grace  of  God  '* 
is  as  powerless  to  save  souls,  as  the  grace  of  colleges  to  make 
scholars,  independent  of  earnest  effort,  "  Work  out  your 
own  salvation,"  is  among  the  best  of  the  Pauline  writings. 
Personal  character,  not  the  sacrificial  blood  of  goats  and  kids 
under  the  law,  not  Christ's  under  the  gospel,  decide 
individual  destin3\ 

Jesus'  merits  saved  him,  none  else.  Your  merits  must 
save  you.  Each  soul  is  a  manger,  cradling  a  savior — God  in 
man.  The  blood  of  one  cannot  atone  for  the  sins  of  another. 
That  hemlock  draught  poisoned  only  Socrates.  Jesus' 
prayer  in  the  garden  brought  angels  to  hiniy  not  us.  God  is 
just.  Compensation  is  an  inflexible  law.  Justice  is  sweet 
as  mercy:  both,  centering  in,  flow  out  from  an  infinite 
ocean  of  love.  Happiness  comes  not  by  imputed,  but  by 
'personal  righteousness;  that  is,  right  doing.     0\^^y  hy  bring 


CHRISTIAN    SPIRITUALISM — TnEOLOGIC.  03 

good,  call  there  be  good  results.  Only  in  a  heavenly  state 
of  mmd  can  heaven  come  to  any  soul.  "What  wilt  tlimi 
have,  quoth  God — pay  for  it,  and  take  it,"  writes  Emerson. 
Over  the  shining  portals  that  open  into  the  city  Celestial,  are 
inscribed — '*  No  forgiveness  ! — merit  entitles  to  admission! — love 
is  life  ! — harmony  is  heaven  I '' 


pHAPTEf^    XIII. 


THE  NAZARENE. 


"The  'Twelve'  in  awful  circle  stand 
Where  mortal  dare  not  enter  j 
And,  blazing  like  a  solar  world 
Stands  Jesus  in  the  center." 

I  testify  of  myself. — Jesus. 

Entombed  among  myths,  and  buried  under  the  film  tlat 
flecks  the  synoptic  gospels,  there  shines  a  life,  gentle,  beau- 
tiful, divine.  The  mythologic  and  theologic  savior,  copied 
from  Chrishna,  of  India,  aside,  then,  we  come  to  Jesus  the 
Spiritualist — Jesus  the  natural  man,  the  expected  Son  of 
Syria,  child  of  love  and  wisdom — our  ancient  brother. 

An  impassioned  theatre-admiring  mother  gave  to  England 
a  Bj^'on,  who  shocked  the  State  Church  with  his  bold, 
passional  thought,  and  called  down  angels  to  hear  his  strong, 
loving  heart  beat  in  poetrj^  that  will  live  when  his  persecutors 
are  unknown,  save  as  "  pigmies  on  Alps."  A  mother, 
ambitious  and  daring,  rode  a  dashing  steed  upon  smoking 
battle-fields  in  southern  Italy ;  and  ^N'apoleon's  sword  caused 
Europe  to  tremble.  Mary  was  calm,  loving,  aspirational, 
spiritual.  Overshadowed  by  heavenly  influences,  and  other 
beautiful  and  ante-natal  conditions,  the  civilized  world  throbs 
in  responsive  sympathy  to  the  moral  power  of  Jesus  of 
Nazareth.  Whether  Joseph,  or  a  priest  of  the  temple, 
Ruatained  the  masculine  relation  to  the  welcome  Nazarene, 

94 


CnillSTlAN    SPIRITUALISM — THE    NAZAKENK.  95 

matters  not,  so  far  as  the  present  exegesis  is  concerned. 
Suffice  it,  that  he  was  the  natural  offspring  of  human 
parents;  the  begotten  of  love  and  harmony, imder  the  sweet 
])aptismal  magnetisms  of  angels;  all  conducing  to  an  impres- 
sional,  inspirational,  harmonial  organism — a  medium. — harp 
admirably  iitted  for  the  play  of  divine  powers. 

f!!  the  gorgeous  East,  amid  the  meUow  sunbeams,  sifted 
from  Syrian  skies,  Jesus  awoke  to  the  outer  consciousness 
of  earth-life. 

"Galilee,"  writes  Kenan,  "is  a  country  very  green;  dense  with 
masses  of  flowers;  full  of  shade  and  pleasantness;  the  true  country  of 
the  canticle  of  canticles,  and  of  the  songs  of  the  well-beloved.  ^  *  * 
In  no  place  in  the  world  do  the  mountains  spread  out  with  more  har- 
mony, or  inspire  loftier  ideas.  Jesus  seems  to  have  loved  them 
especially.  The  most  important  acts  of  his  divine  career  were  per- 
formed upon  the  mountains ;  there  he  was  best  inspired ;  there  he  had 
secret  conferences  with  the  ancient  prof)hets,  and  showed  himself  to  his 
disciples  already  transfigured.  ^  ''^  *  As  often  happens  in  very 
lofty  natures,  tenderness  of  heart  was  in  him  transformed  into  infinite 
sweetness,  vague  poetry,  universal  charm.  *  *  =i=  The  group  that 
pressed  around  him  upon  the  banks  of  the  Lake  of  Tiberias,  *  *  * 
believed  in  spectres  and  in  spirits.  *  ^^  *  Great  spiritual  manifes- 
tations were  frequent.  All  believed  themselves  to  be  inspired  in 
different  ways.  Some  were  '  prophets,'  others  '  teachers.'  ^'  (Life  of 
Jesus,  p.  210.) 

Education  has  much  to  do  in  fashioning  character.  Where 
was  Jesus  between  the  years  of  twelve  and  thirty  ?  In  what 
school  of  ideas  was  he  educated  ?  To  these  inquiries  the 
New  Testament  gives  not  the  least  clue.  Those  scheming 
superstitious  Bishops,  that  collected  the  scattered  manu- 
scripts, often  guilty  of  conduct  that  would  have  lastingly 
disgraced  the  frailest  of  the  Alexandrian  Platonists,  voted 
gospels  in  and  out  of  the  canon,  ad  libitum.  (Ecumenical 
councils  debated  and  decided  by  majorities  upon  the  compar- 
ative merits  of  some  thirty  or  forty  gospels,  each  claiming 
by  interested  parties,  divine  origin.  Among  them  were  the 
gospel  of  St.  Peter,  of  St.  Andrew,  of  St.  Barnabus ;  the 
gospel    of   the    infancy  of  Jesus,    &c.     They  rejected    all^ 


9G  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

save  Matthew,  Mark,  Luke  and  John.  The  general  char- 
acter of  the  Christian  Bishops  composing  these  councils,  is 
described  thus  by  Dr.  Jortin  (Bucks.  Theol.  Die.  p.  99). 
''They  have  been  too  much  extolled  by  Papists,  and  by  some 
Protestants.  They  were  a  collection  of  men  who  were  frail 
and  fallible.  Some  of  those  councils  were  not  assemblies  of 
pious  and  learned  divines,  but  cabals^  the  majorit}^  of  which 
were  quarrelsome,  fanatical,  domineering,  dishonest  prelates, 
who  wanted  to  compel  men  to  approve  all  their  opinions,  of 
which  they  themselves  had  no  clear  conceptions;  and  to 
anathamatize  and  oppress  those  who  would  not  implicitly 
submit  to  their  determinations."  Upon  the  authority  of  this 
scholar  and  Christian  theologian,  with  the  testimony  of 
many  others,  in  confirmation,  at  our  disposal,  it  is  clear 
tliat  the  ]N'ew  Testament  books  have  reached  us  through 
"fanatical,"  "quarrelsome"  and  "dishonest  prelates."  So 
"dishonest,"  that  they  voted  every  thing  un-canonical  that 
related  to  Jesus'  sojourn  in  Egypt,  and  initiation  into  the 
Kssenian  brotherhood. 

Fortunately,  however,  a  few  of  the  more  honest  of  the 
Church  Fathers,  w^ith  certain  Pythagoric  and  Platonic 
authors,  whose  integrity  stands  unquestioned,  have  left  suffi- 
cient historic  data  to  establish  the  theory  of  Jesus'  travels  in 
Egypt,  and  deep  schooling  in  the  "mysteries"  pertaining  to 
India,  China  and  Greece. 

M.  Den  on,  describing  a  very  beautiful  temple  of  the 
ancient  Egyptians  at  Philoe,  says  ;  "I  found  within  it  some 
remains  of  a  domestic  scene,  which  seemed  that  of  Joseph 
and  Mary,  and  it  suggested  to  me  the  subject  of  the  flight 
into  Egypt,  in  a  style  of  the  utmost  truth  and  interest. 
(Eng.  Trs.  by  A.  Aiken,  vol.  ii.  p.  169.) 

Both  Athanasius  and  Eusebius  state  that  when  Joseph 
and  Mary  arrived  in  Egypt,  they  took  up  their  residence  in 
a  city  in  which  was  a  splendid  temple  of  Serapis.  (Eusb. 
Demon.  Ev.  Lib.  vi.  ch.  20.) 

The  candid  Rev.  Mr.  Maurice  assures  us  that,  "  The  Arabic  edition 
of*  the    Evangel" um    Infantiae   records   Maturea,   near   Ilermopulis,  in 


CHRISTIAN    SPIRITUALISM  —  THE    NAZARENE.  97 

Egypt,  to  have  been  the  place  where  Jesus  resided  during  his  absence 
from  the  hiud  of  Judea,  until  the  death  of  Herod."  (Maur.  Hist,  vol 
ii.  p.  318.) 

"  In  the  Maturea  (or  Matarea)  of  Egypt,  Jesus  Christ  is  said,  as  we 
liave  before  shown,  to  have  spent  his  youth,  after  he  took  refuge  there, 
from  the  tyrant  Herod."     (Anac.  vol.  i.  p.  242.) 

Pythagoras,  according  to  Jamblichus,  spent  twenty- two 
years  in  Egypt,  among  tliose  savans  and  templed  priests. 
AV^hether  Jesus  remained  there  all  the  years  till  the  aston- 
ishing of  the  "doctors  of  the  law;"  or  all  the  time  from 
twelve  to  thirty  years  of  age,  we  have  no  means  of  knowing 
positively.  It  is  more  probable  that,  like  other  illustrious 
men  of  his  age,  he  traveled  in  search  of  wisdom.  Thales, 
Solon,  Democritus,  Orpheus,  Plato,  Theodosius,  Epicurus, 
Herodotus,  Lycurgus,  these  great  philosophers  of  antiquity, 
binding  their  stoutest  sandals  upon  their  feet,  and  taking  the 
Pilgrims'  staff  in  their  hands,  left  their  country,  and  went 
forth  to  visit  the  vast  sanctuaries  of  Egypt,  there  to  Ve  initiated 
into  those  mysteries  that  had  been  handed  down  from  the 
older,  riper  civilizations  of  India.  "I  am  persuaded,"  writes 
Sir  Wm.  Jones,  "that  a  connection  existed  between  the  old 
nations  of  India,  Egypt,  Greece  and  Italy,  long  before  the 
time  of  Moses."     (Asiat.  Res.  vol.  i.  p.  259.) 

That  Jesus  was  an  Essenian  is  susceptible  of  the  clearest 
historic  demonstration. 

Who  were  tliey  ? — what  their  origin,  their  teachings  and 
customs  ? 

The  Essenians  among  the  Jews,  the  Magi  among  the  Per- 
sians, the  IIierop)hants  of  Egypt,  and  the  Gymnosophists  of 
India,  were  all  co-related  by  a  common  system  of  science, 
treasured  wisdom  and  profound  myster}- ;  all  one,  with  such 
variations  as  periods  of  time,  change  of  language  and 
country,  would  necessarily  produce.  Clemens  Alexandrinus 
states,  upon  what  he  considered  the  highest  authority,  that 
Buddha  was  the  founder  of  the  sect  of  Gymnosophists,  the 
Indian  philosophers.  (The  Buddha,  of  which  avatar,  however, 
U  not  specified.)  Porphyry,  at  first  a  student  of  Origen  and 
7 


98  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

Longiaus,  afterwards  a  disciple  of  Plotinus,  says :  '*  There 
was  one  tribe  of  Indians  divinely  ivise,  whom  the  Greeks  were 
accustomed  to  call  Gymnosophists  ;  but  of  these  there  were 
two  sects,  over  one  of  which,  Brahmins  presided ;  over  the 
other,  the  Samanaeons."     (De  Abst.  b.  iv.  Sect.  17.) 

Pythagoras,  in  India,  was  a  student  at  the  feet  of  those 
Gymnosophists.  As  a  senior  among  the  mystics,  he  there 
graduated.  Higgins  affirms,  that  the  "school  of  this  great 
philosopher  from  the  East — India,  Oarmel,  Egypt,  Delphi, 
Delos — was  closely  connected  with  the  schools  of  the  Essen- 
ians,  Samangeons,  Carmelites,  and  Gnostic  Christians.  The 
Pythagorians  were  Essenians;  and  the  Rev.  R.  Taylor, 
A.  M.,  "^  '^  has  clearly  proved  all  the  hierarchical  institu- 
tions of  the  Christians,  to  be  a  close  copy  of  those  of  the 
Essenians  of  Egypt."     (Anac.  b.  x.  c.  vii.  p.  787.) 

These  Essenians  were  sometimes  denominated  physicians  of  the  soul, 
or  Theraputae;  and,  "residing  both  in  Egypt  and  Judea,  they  prob- 
ably spoke,  or  had  their  sacred  books  in  Chaliee.  They  were  Pyth- 
agorians  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  as  is  proven  by  their  forms, 
ceremonies  and  doctrines.  >;=  ^  jf  the  Pythagorians,  or  Coenobitae, 
as  they  are  called  by  that  famous  Neo-Platonian  philosopher,  Jamb- 
lichus,  were  Buddhists,  then  the  Essenians  were  originally  Buddhists. 
A  branch  of  these  Essenians,  termed,  Koinobii,  lived  in  Egypt,  on  the 
shores  of  lake  Parembole,  in  Monasteries."     (x\nac.  b.  x.  c.  vii.) 

These  quotations  show  the  intimate  relations,  if  not  direct 
identity  of  the  Gymnosophists,  Yogees,  Hierophants,  Pyth- 
agoreans, Essenians,  Magi,  Sufis  and  Rashees.  Of  these 
latter,  Ayeen  Akberry,  writes  :  "The  most  respectable  people 
in  this  country  are  the  Rashees,  who,  although  they  do  not 
suffer  themselves  to  be  fettered  by  traditions,  are,  doubtless, 
true  worshipers  of  God.  They  revile  not  any  other  sect, 
and  ask  nothing  of  any  one;  they  plant  the  road  with  fruit 
trees,  to  furnish  the  traveler  with  refreshments.  They 
abstain  from  flesh,  and  have  no  intercourse  with  the  other 
sex."  There  are  nearly  two  thousand  of  this  sect  in 
Cashmeer.  Higgins  adds:  "These  Reyshees,  or  Rashees, 
same   as  Sofees,  are  the  Essenians,  Carmelites,  or  Kazaritea 


CHRISTIAN   SPIRITUALISiM  —  THE   NAZARENE.  99 

of  the  teiiiph."  Quoting  a  passage  from  tlie  learned  and 
eminent  Burnet,  in  confirmation,  he  furtlier  says:  '*  I  was 
not  a  Httle  gratified  to  find  that  the  close  rehition  hetween 
the  Hindoos  and  the  more  respectable  of  all  the  Jewish  sects, 
theEssenians,  of  which  I  have  not  the  slightest  doubt  that 
Jesus  Christ  was  a  member ,  had  been  observed  by  this  very 
learned  man,  almost  a  hundred  years  ago,  before  the  late 
blaze  of  light  from  the  East  had  shone  upon  us."  (Anac. 
vol.  ii.  b.  ii.  p.  50.) 

Old  India,  the  mother  of  civilizations,  colonizing  Egypt, 
necessarily  bore  her  sacred  mysteries  there.  Egypt,  cele- 
brating them  in  her  pyramidal  chambers,  transferred  them,  iu 
a  somewhat  modified  form,  to  Persia  and  Greece,  and, 
through  Moses,  to  the  more  intellectual  of  the  Jewish 
people;  these,  joining  by  initiation,  were  called  Therapiita3, 
and  Essenes. 

Father  Kebold  says:  ''This  religious  and  philosophic  sect,  the 
Esseuians,  of  which  Jesus  Christ  was  a  member;  was  composed  of 
learned  Jews,  who  lived  iu  the  form  of  a  society  similar  to  that  of 
Pythagoras.  If  not  the  same,  in  substance,  they  were  intimately  con- 
nected with  another  sect,  called  Theraputes,  residing  in  Egpyt,  forming 
the  fraternal  link  between  the  Egyptians  and  the  Hebrews.  *  *  * 
That  occult  science,  designated  by  the  ancient  priests,  under  the  name 
of  regenerating  fire;  is  that  which,  at  the  present  day,  is  known  as 
animal  magnetism — a  science  that,  for  more  than  three  thousand  years, 
was  the  peculiar  possession  of  the  Indian  and  Egyptian  priesthood,  into 
the  knowledge  of  which  Moses  was  initiated  at  Heliopolis,  where  he 
was  educated;  and  Jesus  among  the  Essenian  priests  of  Egypt  or 
Judea ;  and  by  which  these  two  great  reformers,  particularly  the  latter, 
wrought  many  of  the  miracles  mentioned  in  the  Scriptures." 

It  being  evident,  then,  that  Jesus,  spending  his  youth  in 
Egypt,  perhaps  traveling  in  other  Asiatic  countries  than 
Palestine,  was  connected  with  the  Essenians,  the  question  of 
their  teachings  and  practices  becomes  deeply  interesting. 

Philo,  of  Alexandria,  in  tw^o  books,  written  expressly 
upon  the  subject  of  the  Essenes,  giving  a  close  and  critical 
account  of  their  doctrines  and  manners,  says:  "  Listening  to 
the  instructions  of  their  chiefs,  they  were  taught,  as  were  the 


100  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

Pythagorians,  the  existence  of  one  supreme  God,  the  immor- 
tality of  the  soul,  rewards  and  punishments  for  good  and  ill- 
doing,  and  the  guardian  caie  of  gods  and  angels.  It  was 
enjoined  upon  them  to  show  obedience  to  authority;  fidelity 
to  all  men ;  to  be  lovers  of  truth ;  exercising  kindness  to 
inferiors;  concealing  nothing  from  their  own  sect;  nor 
discovering  any  of  their  doctrines  to  others  than  those  who 
had  received  them  w^th  the  white  stone  and  the  new  name; 
and  lastly,  to  preserve  the  books  belonging  to  the  sect,  and 
the  names  of  the  angels." 

At  the  time  of  the  Maccabees,  180  B.  C,  on  the  western 
coast  of  the  Dead  Sea,  the  Essenians  made  the  doctrine  of 
community  of  goods,  and  a  life  in  common,  a  religious  and 
social  dogma.  Lodged  under  the  same  roof,  taking  meals  at 
the  same  table,  clothed  in  the  same  dress,  ignoring  marriage, 
they  observed  celibacy  and  lived  in  continence,  abjured 
oaths  and  all  violence,  contemned  riches,  rejected  the  use 
of  the  precious  metals,  w^ere  given  wholly  to  the  meditation 
of  moral  and  religious  truths,  and  subsisted  by  the  labor  of 
their  hands,  were  content  with  one  meal  a  day,  and  that  of 
bread  and  vegetables  and  fruits. 

Philo  further  informs  us,  that,  ''  spreading  themselves  all 
through  Asia  Minor,  and  in  the  environs  of  Alexandria,  they 
became,  at  a  later  period,  more  devoted;  renouncing  all 
pleasure,  ambition,  glory,  earthly  possessions,  and  their 
native  country,  even,  to  give  themselves  entirely  to  the 
exercise  of  prayer,  contemplation  and  deeds  of  charity."  To 
overcome  the  passions,  the  spiritual  controlling  the  Adamic, 
to  subjugate  the  senses,  to  raise  the  soul  above  the  influences 
of  the  body,  to  despise  the  sham  of  fame  and  glitter  of 
wealth,  to  commune  with  the  gods  and  orders  of  celestial 
beings — these,  in  the  estimation  of  the  Essenians,  constituted 
the  ideal  of  human  perfection.  Who  does  not  see  in  it 
the  underlying  animus  that,  from  the  earthly  side,  inspired 
the  consecration  and  catholicity  of  spirit  which  so  eminently 
distinguished  the  reformer  of  Nazareth  ? 


CHRISTIAN    SPIRITUALISM  —  THE    NAZARENE.  101 

Jesus  being  interiorly  sweet  and  harmonial  in  organization, 
fr^Uowsliiped  by  the  Essenians,  schooled  in  the  Asian  mys- 
teries, and  a  medium,  how  natural  the  explanation  of  the 
genuine  teachings,  doctrines  and  wonderful  works  ascribed 
to  him!  Testifying  of  himself,  living  the  inner  life,  and 
speaking  from  the  divine  ideal,  he  rose  so  high  above  country 
and  national  narrowness,  he  astoiiished  both  scribe  and  phar- 
isee.  The  old  prophets  were  essentially  Israelitish;  many 
of  the  ancient  philosophers  were  decidedly  Grecian ;  the 
sage,  Gotama  Buddha,  was  Hindoo,  par  excellence ;  but  this 
Judean  Spiritualist,  grounded  in  the  absolute  religion,  bap- 
tized daily  from  above,  attended  by  a  legion  of  angels, 
directed  the  thirsting  of  his  age  to  a  fountain  from  which  all 
diversities  of  race  might  drink — to  a  tree  of  life  with  fruitage 
fresh  and  free  for  all  souls;  grasping  fundamental  truths  and 
broad,  beautiful  ideas,  he  spoke  the  deepest  intuitions  of  his 
inmost  being.  ISTo  poet  or  moralist  ever  enunciated  fresher 
or  more  charming  thoughts,  adapted  to  the  masses,  or  voiced 
a  keener,  richer  dialect  of  audacious  insight,  than  he,  in 
those  seemingly  effortless  speeches  of  the  "good  shepherd," 
the  "true  vine,''  "the  lilies,"  "the  birds,"  the  sun  rising 
"on  the  evil  and  the  good,  and  the  rain  falling  upon  the  just 
and  the  unjust." 

All  truth  is  immortal;  our  conceptio7is  of  it  only  are  new. 
Jesus  tau2:ht  the  world  no  new  truths. 

The  immortality  of  the  soul  had  been  taught  by  the 
most  ancient  Aryans,  Thales,  Zeno,  Plato,  Anaximenes,  Eni- 
pedocles;  Indian  seers  and  Persian  ]\Iagi  taiigbr  it  long 
before  the  birth  of  the  Pauline  "  man  Christ  Jesus." 

The  universal  Fatherhood  of  God  is  distinctly  taught  in  the 
Socrates  of  Zenophon,  in  the  hymn  of  Cleanthes,  and  in  the 
hymn  of  Avatus ;  quoted  by  Paul  in  his  appeal  to  the  Athe- 
nians; in  Maximus  Tyrius  and  Simplicius;  in  Manilius, 
Epictetus,  Seneca  and  Cicero.  Almost  every  Greek  or 
Roman  poet,  from  Ilesiod  and  Homer  down,  designates 
Jupiter  as  the  fiUhe  -  of  gods  and  men,  and  draws  the  infer- 
ence  therefrom    of  his   infinite    love    and    universal   care. 


102  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

Pj'thagoras  is  made  to  say,  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Coliyer,  (I  e<^  xii. 
p.  499,)  "God  is  neither  the  object  of  sense,  nor  subject  to 
passion  ;  but  invisible,  only  intelligible,  and  supremely  intel- 
ligent. In  his  body,  he  is  like  the  light,  and,  in  his  soul,  he 
resembles  truth.  He  is  the  universal  spirit  that  pervades 
and  diftuseth  itself  through  all  nature.  All  beings  receive 
their  life  from  him.  There  is  but  one  only  God,  who  is  not, 
as  some  are  apt  to  imagine,  seated  above  the  world,  beyond 
the  orb  of  the  universe ;  but,  being  himself  All  in  All,  he  sees 
all  the  beings  that  till  his  immensity,  the  only  principle,  the 
light  of  Heaven,  the  Father  of  all.  He  produces  everything; 
he  orders  and  disposes  everything;  he  is  the  reason,  the  life, 
and  the  motion  of  all  beings.''  These  doctrines,  embodying 
the  universal  Fatherhood  of  God,  were  the  teachings  of 
Pythagoras,  concerning  Deity.  Jesus  only  reiterated  them 
with  a  pathos  peculiarly  his  own. 

Originality  cannot  be  ascribed  therefore  to  Jesus.  The 
doctrine  of  the  Fatherhood  of  God,  is  ancient  as  the  teachings 
of  the  wise  in  India,  Syria  and  Greece. 

"  May  the  Father  of  Heaveu,  who  is  the  Father  of  Men,  be  favorable 
to  us." — Rig  Veda. 

"  Father  of  gods  aud  men." — Hesiod. 

*'  Zeus,  most  great  and  glorious  Father." — Horner. 

"  Father  and  guardian  of  the  human  race." — Horace. 

"  He,  the  glorious  Parent,  tries  the  good  men  and  prepares  him  for 
himself." — Seneca. 

"  He,  who  regards  the  whole  universe  as  his  country,  feels  bound  to 
seek  the  favor  of  its  Father  and  framer." — Philo. 

"  They  are  children  of  their  Father  who  is  Heaven.  *  *  *  *  Every 
nation  has  its  special  guardian  angels." — Talmud. 

The  Alexandrian  Philo  Judseus,  41  B.  C,  belonging  to  an 
illustrious  Jewish  family,  emphatically  declared  all  men 
brothers,  by  virtue  of  the  inspiration  of  the  Eternal  Word. 
Intimately  acquainted  with  the  philosophy  of  India  and 
Egypt,  the  ancient  Grecian  schools,  and  the  cabalistic  doc- 
trines preceding  him,  his  system  was  a  mixture  of  Chrishna, 
Zoroaster,  Plato,  abounding  in  Jewish  phrases,  and  weai'ng 


CHRISTIAN    SPIRITUALISM  —  THE    NAZARENE.  103 

Hebrew  forms  as  garments.  From  him  the  Nazarenc  bor- 
rowed largely,  in  the  imagery  connected  with  his  parables. 
Among  rhilo's  principal  doctrines,  were  the  divine  Logos, 
the  universal  brotherhood,  pre-existence,  the  descent  of  souls, 
and  the  guardian  care  of  angels. 

The  humanitarian  spirit  of  brotherhood  pervades  the  older 
Brahminical  theology  that  once  flooded  Asia,  finding  expres- 
sion in  the  "  law  of  love  for  all." 

The  eloquent  Quintilian  constantly  appealed  to  the  senti- 
ment of  brotherly  love,  as  the  sweetest  in  man,  and,  "  as 
unitiniy  all  men  by  the  will  of  the  Common  Father." 

Cicero  frequently  affirmed,  that  men  were  "  created  for  the 
'purpose  of  mutual  help,  to  love  and  be  loved,  and  for  the 
simple  reason,  they  were  men.'' 

Epictetus,  Aurelius,  Seneca,  and  others,  taught  the 
"  common  citizenship  and  brotherhood  of  men." 

"  All  meu,  everywhere,  belong  to  one  family." — Diodorus. 

"  No  man  is  a  stranger  to  me,  provided  he  be  a  good  man ;  for  we 
have  all  one  and  the  same  nature." — Menander. 

"  All  men  are  our  friends  and  fellow-citizens.  **:!=*** 
Greeks  and  barbarians  drink  from  one  and  the  same  cup  of  brotherly 
love." — Zeno. 

"  Will  you  not  bear  with  your  brother  ?  He  has  his  birth  from  the 
same  Jove  as  thou,  is  His  son,  as  thou  art,  born  of  the  same  divine 
seed.  *  »  5H  Will  you  enslave  those  who  are  your  brothers  by 
nature,  children  of  God?" — Epictetus. 

*'  I  am  a  man,  nothing  human  can  I  count  foreign  to  me." — Terence. 

Denis,  in  his  learned  work  on  the  moral  theories  and 
teachings  of  antiquity,  shows  clearly  that  the  highest  moral 
sentiments  of  humanity,  brotherhood  and  self-sacrifice, 
thread  the  ethical  and  religious  codes  of  every  cultured  age. 
All  the  wise  sayings  ascribed  by  Protestant  clergymen  to 
Jesus,  were  said  before  his  time.  This  they  ought  to  know, 
and,  knowing,  teach. 

Saisset  well  said,  that  stoicism  *'  anticipated  Christ's  teach- 
ings, in  the  recognition,  that  men  are  brothers  and  brothers  in 
God."  The  more  honest  of  the  old  Church  Fathers,  concede 
a  superiority  of  scholarship  and  wisdom  to  the  heathen  over  the 


104  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIxilTUALISTS. 

first  Christians.  Conscious  of  this,  the  orthodox  Merivale, 
BSLJ3,  that  "  while  the  apostles  preached  the  commandment  of 
Jesus,  that  he  who  loveth  God  love  his  brother  also,  the  same 
instinct  and  sympathy  sprang  spontaneously,  and  without  a 
sanction  but  that  of  nature,  in  many  a  (heathen)  watcher  of 
the  wants  and  miseries  of  men." 

The  "golden  rule"  belongs  to  Hillel,  as  well  as  to  Jesus; 
more  to  Confucius ;  Philo,  and  the  son  of  Sirach,  more  than 
to  the  son  of  Joseph,  because  they  enunciated  the  thought 
before  him.  Sir  Wm.  Jones,  writing  of  the  antiquity  of 
this  precept,  says  :  "  Religion  has  no  need  of  such  aids  as 
many  are  willing  to  give  it,  by  asserting  that  the  wisest  men 
of  this  world  were  ignorant  of  the  two  great  doctrines,  love 
to  God,  and  love  to  all  humanity.  These  dogmas  run  like 
silver  threadings  through  the  systems  of  the  most  ancient 
nations." 

The  golden  rule  was  a  common  teaching  among  Chinese, 
Syrian  and  Grecian  philosophers,  long  before  the  Christian 
era. 

"  That  which  thou  blamest  in  another,  do  not  thyself  to  thy 
neighbor." — Thales. 

'*  Thou  wilt  deserve  to  be  honored,  if  thou  doest  not  thyself  what 
thou  blamest  in  others." — hocrates. 

"Do  to  no  man  what  thou  thyself  hatest." — Tohit. 

"  Do  not  to  another  what  thou  wouldst  not  he  should  do  to  thee : 
this  is  the  sum  of  the  law." — Hillel. 

"  What  you  do  not  wish  done  to  yourself,  do  not  do  to  others." — 
Confucius. 

But  this  golden  rule  of  the  Chinese  philosopher  is  put  in 
the  negative,  says  the  clerical  objector.  Granted.  So  are 
the  ten  commandments  of  the  Old  Testament;  but  are  they 
any  less  commandments? 

Thus  far  we  have  traced,  by  good  authorities,  the  consec- 
utive relations  of  religions  from  one  race  and  country  to 
another,  showing  their  mutual  helps,  their  co-relations,  their 
upward  growth  into  higher  altitudes  of  thought  and  use.  It 
remains  now  to  analyze  the  degree  of  originality  that  justly 
belongs  to  the  Spiritualism  of  Jesus. 


ClIRISTTAN    SPIRITUALISM  —  THE    NAZARENE.  105 

AViives  of  civilization  are  consecutive;  the  first  is  pushed 
forward  by  its  next  succeeding,  and  so  over  tlic  measureless 
ocean  of  truth.  Circling  in  all  directions,  they  take  shape 
according  to  the  forms  of  mind  into  which  they  flow. 

Human  nature  is  the  same  in  all  ages  and  climes,  varying 
only  in  expression.  Nothing  good  is  lost  to  the  world.  Like 
geological  strata,  tlie  religion  of  one  age  lies  upon  and  over- 
shelves  that  of  the  preceding;  the  former  incorporating  the 
latter  in  new  forms  and  uses.  A  magnificent  tree  of  life, 
each  branch  has  the  nature  of  all  the  rest.  The  Egyptian, 
Chinese  and  Persian  copy  from  the  Indian ;  and  the  Hebraic 
and  Christian,  in  turn,  from  all  these.  Commercially  and 
educationally,  then,  those  of  one  generation  shape  those  of 
the  next,  in  successive  order,  from  the  ancient  into  the 
mediaeval,  and  thence  into  the  sub-dividing  Protestant,  which 
belong  to  the  Catholic,  as  leaves  to  the  same  branch — to 
culminate  in  the  completion  of  a  grand  cycle,  as  they  now  do, 
in  the  flower  of  all  religions — a  world-w^ide  Spiritualism. 

But  another  influence  molds  all  these  changing  materials. 
Developed  in  the  tropics,  the  religion  of  India  was  passional 
and  gorgeous.  Religion  in  Greece  and  Rome — farther 
north — was  colder,  more  select,  more  intellectual  and 
brilliant.  On  the  isothermal  line,  Palestine  lies  in  higher 
latitude  than  India  or  Egypt,  but  not  under  the  more  electric, 
and,  therefore,  intellectual  atmosDhere  of  southern  Europe. 

Primitive  Christianity,  the  positive  religion  of  Palestine, 
is,  therefore,  not  so  passional  and  imposingly  gorgeous  as  that 
of  India,  nor  so  philosophic  and  variegated  as  the  Grecian; 
but  is  intermediate,  sufliciently  emotional  to  attract  and 
warm  the  heart,  and  sufliciently  intellectual  to  evolve  a 
jorrect  philosophy  of  the  soul.  Beautiful,  therefore,  is  its 
fruit  high  on  the  tree  of  life,  substantial  and  vital  in  spiritual 
character. 

In  the  Nazarene  w^e  have  this  happy  blending — a  balanced 
summer-sunned  man — a  tropical  heart,  sweet,  full  of  love- 
flowers,  and  tempered  to  an  intellectuality  that  weaves  its 
silvery  philosophic  filling  through  the  magnetic  vesture  that 


106  DOCTRINES    OF    PPTRTTUALTPTS. 

clothes  our  freezing  humanity.  In  this  sense  is  primitwc 
Christianity^  original,  the  same  as  can  be  said  of  Buddhism, 
Mahommedanism,  or  any  other  religion. 

Here  shines  in  again  the  all-unsealing  light  of  the  Spiritual 
Philosophy.  The  Jews  borrowed  of  India  and  Egypt,  and 
other  then  enlightened  nations,  in  a  closer  sense  than  history 
defines,  than  the  intercourse  of  commerce  can  guarantee. 
The  work  of  mediumistic  minds  is  by  no  means  ended  with 
their  departure  from  this  rudimental  sphere.  Taking  with 
them  their  peculiar  proclivities  of  thought,  their  natural 
characteristics,  their  purposes  to  finish  what  they  began  here, 
they  impress  upon  the  new  races  they  affiliate  with,  their 
politics,  science,  religion,  thus  completing  the  circle  of  com- 
munication internationally  and  spiritually.  Hence,  even 
with  races  locked  in  by  seas  or  mountains,  or  walls,  like  old 
China,  there  is  a  general  resemblance  in  these  particulars, 
which  only  the  philosophv  of  angel-mmistry  can  full% 
explain. 

In  the  light  then  of  the  Spiritual  Philosophy,  we  are  not 
to  look  exclusively  to  anterior  races  for  the  origin  of  the 
Hebrew,  Christian,  or  of  any  other  subsequent  religion  ;  for 
it  was  in  the  power  of  ancient  spirits,  and  natural  to  their 
communicative  relationship,  to  re-construct  their  religious 
wisdom,  to  be  mainly  original  to  their  media. 

Eclectic,  then,  let  us  here  cull  some  of  the  beautiful  spirit- 
ualities of  our  dear  brother,  the  self-denying  Son  of  Man. 

Reading  the  beatitudes,  we  feel  a  sweet  throbbing  within, 
as  if  the  heart's  chords  were  swept  by  an  angel's  breath. 
That  one  sentence  is  a  life-key  that  opens  to  calm  sunlight 
the  soul  of  Jesus — "  Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart,  for  they 
shall  see  God."  There  is  a  very  enchantment  in  his  precepts, 
parables,  aptitude  of  illustration,  love  of  the  beautiful,  moral 
heroism,  tender  sympathy  for  the  sorrowing,  non-resistance, 
and  martyrdom  for  a  principle.  The  picture  which  Renan 
draws  of  him  is  truthful  and  charming: 

"  As  many  of  the  grand  aspectu  of  hia  character  are  lost  to  us  by  the 
fault  of  his  disciples,  it  is  probable  that  many  of  his  faults  have  beeu 


CnRTSTTAN    SPIRITUALISM  —  TUE   NaZARENK.  107 

dissemb  ed.  But  never  has  any  man  made  the  interests  of  humanity 
predominate  in  his  life,  over  the  littleness  of  self-love,  so  much  as  he. 
Devoted,  without  reserve,  to  his  idea,  he  subordinated  everything  to  it, 
to  such  a  degree  that,  towards  the  end  of  his  life,  the  universe  no 
longer  existed  for  him.  It  was  by  this  flood  of  heroic  deeds  he  con- 
quered heaven.  ^  ^'  *  t-  PIJs  life-deeds  of  benevolence  will  grow 
without  ceasing;  his  legend  will  call  forth  tears  without  end;  his  j^uf- 
i'erings  will  molt  the  noblest  hearts;  all  ages  will  proclaim  that,  among 
the  sons  of  men,  there  is  none  born  greater  than  Jesus." 

Whence  his  greatness?  It  was  the  blossoming  out  of  hia 
inner  divinity,  under  the  ministry  of  angels! — a  link  in  the 
golden  cliain  that  draws  us  nearer  to  the  divine  teachings  of 
the  New  Testament.  It  is  the  cable  to  the  bridge  of  Hope 
that  arches  the  mystic  river,  on  which  humanity  may  pass 
safe  over  to  the  morning  lands. 

Gabriel,  the  prophets'  angel,  hails  Mary — "Blessed  art 
thou  among  women,"  announcing  the  advent  of  the  Judean 
Spiritualist.  Repeating  the  song  sung  at  the  birth  of 
Crishna,  a  host  of  angels,  appearing  to  the  shepherds,  sing 
at  his  birth:  "Glory  to  God  in  the  highest;  on  earth 
peace  and  good-will  toward  men."  In  the  temple,  when  a 
mere  lad,  under  the  heavenly  ministry,  he  confounds  the 
Rabbis.  At  his  baptism  the  spirit  descends  in  form  of  a 
dove,  and  voices  his  consecration,  as  it  has  to  other  mediums: 
"  This  is  my  beloved  son."  At  his  temptation,  when  fam- 
ishing with  hunger,  "  angels  came  and  ministered  unto 
him."  Under  spirit  influence,  he  heals  the  diseases  of 
the  people.  Inspired  by  a  Samson,  he  drives  out  the 
"moneychangers"  of  the  temple.  Moved  by  his  mighty 
guards,  indignant  at  religious  corruption,  he  utters  words 
that  call  down  upon  him  the  anathamas  of  all  the  priest- 
hood— a  true  sign  of  the  faithful  iconoclast.  A  pure  lover 
of  nature,  catching  his  best  inspirations  from  the  beautiful 
and  the  true,  he  retires  with  Peter,  James  and  John,  to  a 
high  mountain,  "and  is  there  transfigured  before  them." 
Entranced,  "  his  face  shining  as  the  sun,  his  raiment  white 
as  the  light,  there  appears  unto  them  Moses  and  Elias,  talking 
with  Jesus."     Upheld   by  spirit-hands,  he  walks  upon    the 


108  BOCTRTXES    OP    SPIRITUALISTS. 

Boa  of  Tiberias.  Spiritually  clairvoyant,  lie  reads  '*  what  is 
in  man,"  and  prophesies.  Foreseeing  his  martyrdom,  he  is 
troubled,  and,  during  his  prayer,  a  spirit  voice  is  heard  by 
the  listening  people,  who  ''said  that  it  thundered;  others 
said  an  angel  spake  to  him."  In  Gethsemane,  and  before 
Pilate,  "an  angel  appeared,  strengthening  him"  for  the 
ordeal.  At  his  crueitixion,  the  electro-spirit  batteries  are 
etrono;  enouo:h  to  "rend  the  rocks,"  and  "the  veil  of  the 
temple,  from  top  to  bottom.'*  So  potent  the  influence,  so 
mediuraistic  the  people,  they  see  the  spiritual  bodies  of 
ascended  saints,  walking  in  their  midst;  these  "went  into 
the  holy  city,  and  appeared  unto  many."  An  angel  rolls 
away  the  stone  from  his  sepulchre.  The  spirit  of  Jesus 
appears  to  Mary,  to  Peter  and  John — to  the  disciples  on  their 
way  to  Emmaus,  when  he  expounded  to  them  his  mission ; 
and  at  last  "their  eyes  were  opened,  and  they  knew  him; 
and  he  vanished  out  of  sight."  Jubilant  over  the  stupendous 
fact,  that  their  divine  Teacher  is  yet  alive,  they  return  to 
Jerusalem,  and,  finding  the  eleven  chosen  disciples  gathered 
together,  earnestly  listening  to  their  happy  report  of  his 
appearance  to  Simon,  lo !  the  risen  "Jesus  himself  stood 
in  the  midst  of  them,  and  said,  '  Peace  be  unto  you  !'  But 
they  were  terrified  and  aflTrighted,  and  supposed  they  had 
seen  a  spirit."  Psychologically  assuming  the  form  of  the 
crucified,  he  thus  showed  them  his  "  hands  and  feet,  and 
they  handled  him." 

From  this  data  of  spiritual  perception,  deepening  in  clair- 
voyance and  clairaudience,  they  -saw  the  real  presence. 
Being  substantially  a  spiritual  organism,  and  measurably 
dependent  upon  material  substance  for  sustenance,  at  his 
request,  they  "  gave  him  a  piece  of  broiled  fish  and  an  honey- 
comb, and  he  took  it,  and  did  eat  before  them ; "  that  is,  by 
imbibation,  he  mediumistically  partook  of,  and  appropriated, 
their  aromal  efiluence. 

The  martyrdom  of  the  cross  endured,  he  appeared  as  the 
Christ-spirit  to  the  assembled  twelve,  charging  them  to  go 
into  "  all  the  worl  i  and  preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature." 


CHRISTIAN    SPIRITUALISM  —  THE   NAZARENE.  109 

Why  thus  preach  ?  To  induce  belief.  What  then  ?  "  These 
signs  should  follow  believers:"  'They  should  cast  out 
demons,  speak  with  new  tongues,  lay  hands  on  the  sick,  and 
heal  them;  make  the  lame  walk,  the  blind  see,  and  the 
deaf  hear.'  Again,  said  Jesus:  "He  that  believeth  on  me, 
the  works  that  I  do  shall  he  do  also ;  and  greater  works 
than  these  shall  he  do ;  because  I  go  unto  my  Father."  The 
apostles  had  these  gifts  when  listening  to  the  charge.  The 
promise,  therefore,  was  to  future  believers.  These  signs  and 
gifts  do  not  abound  in  Christian  churches,  because  they  have 
departed  from  the  "  faith  once  delivered  to  the  saints."  But 
they  do  follow  mediums,  and  prevail  every  where  among 
Spiritualists.  These  works  they  do^  being  genuine  believers, 
baptized  with  the  Christ-baptism.  Media  are  mediators 
between  the  winter-lands  of  earth,  and  the  summer-lands  of 
heaven,  and  their  spiritual  "  signs  "  and  powers  increase  lu 
the  ratio  of  approximation  to  the  spiritualized  planes  of  the 
pure  and  holy. 

He  appeared  to  his  apostles  on  the  mount  of  Ascension, 
when  *'he  ie  parted  from  them;"  and  to  the  little  assembly 
of  believers  on  the  day  of  Pentacost,  when  they  are  all  of 
*^  one  accord"  in  a  spiritual  circle,  and  the  manifestation 
comes  as  a  *'rusning,  mighty  wind,"  and  "fills  all  the  house," 
when  "cloven  tongues,  like  as  fire,"  rest  upon  them,  and 
they  "  speak  in  other  tongues  as  the  spirit  gives  them  utter- 
ance." He  confers  upon  them  "the  gifts  of  the  Spirit,"  and 
they  heal  by  the  "laying  on  of  hands;"  they  have  visions, 
trances,  inspirations.  They  are  all  mediumized,  and,  under 
spirit  control,  endure  deprivation,  penury,  want,  suffering, 
persecution  and  martyrdom,  as  others  have  done — as  their 
brothers  and  sisters  now  do.  John,  the  beloved  disciple  ''  in 
the  Spirit,  (entranced)  on  the  Lord's  day,"  saw  thrones. 
altars,  crystal  seas,  rainbows,  falling  stars,  white  vestured 
angels  with  golden  girdles;  and  was  about  to  fall  down  and 
worship  the  "shining  one,"  who  unrolled  to  his  clairvoyant 
vision  these  symbols  of  revelation  and  the  millennial  age, 


110  DOCTRlNfiS   Of   SPlRtTtlALISTS. 

when  he  was  admonished:  '*  See  thou  do  it  not;  for  1  am 
thy  fellow-servant,  and  of  thj  brethren  the  prophets." 
Glorified  now  in  the  heavens,  honored  as  a  star  in  the 
congresses  of  spirits,  he  is  inspired  with  love  so  tender,  that 
his  heart  still  beats  down  all  the  ages  since,  at  every  pulsa- 
tion, voicing  the  divinity  within — "Littlts  children,  love 

ONE  ANOTHER  ! '' 


ECTURE     IV. 


J 


Medieval     Spiritualism. 


p 


HAPTEP^^    XIV. 


TRANSITIONAL. 


•*God  sends  his  teachers  unto  every  age, 
To  every  clime,  and  every  race  of  men, 
With  revelations  fitted  to  their  growth. 
And  shape  of  mind,  nor  gives  the  realm  of  IVuth 
Into  the  selfish  rule  of  one  sole  race." 

Hyphened  by  erudition,  and  inspired  by  unitive  purpose, 
to  arcli  the  years  with  wisdom,  there  were  certain  scholarly 
standard-bearers,  wdio,  conserving  the  good  of  the  past  and 
compounding  it  with  the  new,  handed  the  philosophies  of  the 
ages  down  to  incoming  dispensations.  Some  of  these  were 
the  cotemporaries  of  Jesus.  Among  them,  were  Simeon,  the 
mild  and  the  just;  Jesus,  the  promising  son  of  Sirach ;  the 
learned  Eabbi,  Hillel ;  Schemaia,  the  wise;  the  candid 
Gaiiialiel,  the  elder;  and  the  distinguished  writer  and 
8chohi,r,  the  Judaic  Egyptian,  Philo,  These  philosophic 
thinkers,  laying  great  stress  upon  dreams  and  visions, 
believed  in  the  appearance  of  spirits.  Bating  the  Sadducees, 
it  was  a  common  dogma  of  the  masses.  Ernest  Renan,  the 
most  learned  of  living  Shemitic  scholars,  writing  in  his  "Life 
of  Jesus,"  of  the  group  assembled  on  the  banks  of  Lake  Tibe- 
rias, to  hear  the  Nazarene,  says :  "  They  believed  in  spectres 
and  spirits." 

Philo  Jud^us,  born  in  Alexandria,  a  city  next  to  Athens, 
the  famous  resort  of  the  Greek  literati,  was,  in  religion,  a 
8  113 


114  DOCTRINES    OF   SPIRITUALISTS. 

Ph.'xnisee;  in  pbilosopliy,  tiuctured  witli  Platonism;  and,  in 
common  with  the  thinkers  of  his  time,  given  to  allegorical 
interpretations.  Mosaic  in  theology,  he  taught  the  existence 
of  one  invisible  God — immutable,  ineffable  and  incompre- 
hensible— the  originator  of  all  things  in  connection  with  the 
Mother  of  the  universe,  whom  the  Greeks  termed,  Sophia,  or 
Wisdom,  By  virtue  of  this  deific  marriage,  he  accounted  for 
all  germinal  entities  and  spiritual  types  of  future  embodi- 
ment; and,  as  a  corollary,  taught  that  man  is  a  trinity  com- 
pounded of  essential  spirit,  having,  in  personality,  a  more 
materialized  spirituiil  body,  and  an  external  or  earthly  body. 
A  teacher  of  pre-existence,  he  maintained  that  matter,  being 
dark  and  gross,  is  the  source  of  evil,  and  that  man  therein 
veiled,  assisted  by  Sophia  and  the  good  angels,  is  enabled  to 
rise  out  of  this  temporary  degradation,  into  the  holy  sunshine 
of  God's  light  and  love.  Another  feature  of  his  Spiritualism 
is  thus  expressed  in  Yonge's  translation  : 

"  The  Creator  of  the  gods  is  also  the  Father  of  everything 
else— the  world  being  an  imitation  visible  to  the  outer  senses  of  an 
archetypal  model.  Some  souls  have  descended  into  bodies,  and  others 
have  not  thought  worthy  to  approach  any  portion  of  the  earth.  *  ^  ^  * 
Those  whom  other  philosophers  call  demons,  Moses  usually  calls  angels ; 
but  they  are  spirits  flying  through  the  air.  *  *  *  *  These  spirits  are 
wholly  immortal  and  divine.  Those  who  descend  into  bodies,  are  often 
overwhelmed,  as  in  a  whirlpool;  but,  by  sf.ruggling,  emerge,  and  fly 
back  to  their  homes  in  the  upper  regions.  *  *  *  *  gy  considering  that 
angels,  demons  and  souls,  are  different  names  for  the  same  beings,  you 
will  clear  away  much  superstition  from  the  subject.  The  etherial 
regions  are  like  populous  cities,  filled  with  immortal  spirits,  and 
numerous  as  stars  in  the  firmament." 

Apollonus,  an  inspired  sage  of  Tyana,  born  in  Asia 
Minor,  about  the  time  of  Jesus  of  IS'azareth,  was  considered, 
by  some,  as  superior  in  raediumistic  endowments,  to  the  son 
of  Joseph  and  Mary.  Proteus,  famous  for  his  prophetic 
powers,  appeared  to  the  mother  prior  to  his  birth,  illuminat- 
ing her  apartment  with  divine  radiance.  In  early  youth,  he 
wrought  many  so-called  miracles.  The  celebrated  temple 
of  ^sculapius  was  his  fa:^orite  resort  for  recuperation  and 


MEDIEVAL  —  TRANSITIONAL.  115 

Spiritual  commuuiou.  "  Philostratus  informs  us,  that  he 
could  read  the  thoughts  of  men,  foresee  future  events,  and, 
withal,  was  gifted  with  the  wonderful  power  of  working 
miracles."  These  are  equally  as  well  substantiated  as  those 
of  Jesus.  *'He  taught,"  says  L.  Maria  Child,  "there  is  one 
God,  the  Father  of  all,  and  that  the  numerous  deities,  who 
are  objects  of  popular  worship,  arc  intermediate  spirits, 
emploj^ed  as  agents.  He  invoked  these  spirits,  placed  great 
reliance  upon  dreams  and  omens,  and  believed  that  he  was 
often  divinely  guided  by  spiritual  beings  of  heaven.  *  * 
*  *  The  early  Christian  Fathers,  in  alluding  to  him,  do 
not  deny  the  miracles  he  wrought,  but  attribute  them  to  the 
aid  of  evil  spirits,  procured  by  magical  arts."  The  purity  of 
his  life,  owing  to  his  affiliation  with  God  and  angels,  was 
unquestioned,  his  benevolence  almost  unparalleled,  and  his 
sympathies  so  tender  and  touching,  that  multitudes  hung 
upon  his  lips,  as  though  charmed  and  chained  by  a  power 
divine. 

Simon  Mag»  us,  the  Samarian  magician,  who  greatly  troub- 
led the  apostles  by  his  so-called  heresies,  and  miracles 
wrought  independent  of  Christ,  (Acts  9,)  was  a  scholarly 
medium  of  general  note.  He  taught  that  "the  Source  of  all 
good  dwells  in  plenitude  of  light;  "  that  "Interior  Thought," 
(Ennoia)  is  the  primitive  feminine  emanation  therefrom;  and 
that  by  the  assistance  of  spirits — her  children — she  created 
the  world,  and  gave  them  its  supervision.  Regarding  matter 
co-eternal  with  God,  and  dark  and  chaotic,  he  deduced  the 
logical  conclusion,  that  moral  and  physical  disorders  are 
"  mere  perversities,  occasioned  by  the  soul's  contact  with  it." 
In  his  enthusiasm  and  spiritual  rapture,  like  thousands  of 
other  media,  who,  from  flattery,  magnify  their  own  achieve- 
ments, he  considered  himself  to  be  the  "  Great  Power 
of  God,"  the  "  Word  of  God,"  sent  to  redeem  the  world 
from  evil.  Jehovah  was  simply  a  leader  of  spirits,  and  rebel- 
lious at  that,  from  whose  imperfect  laws  he  was  to  err  anci- 
pate  mankind.     Kot  a  bad  proposition  by  any  means.     Like 


116  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

a  sensible  man,  he  "denied  the  resurrection  of  the  body." 
He  advocated  holy  aspirations  that  the  soul  "might  be  re- 
united to  the  Source  whence  all  beings  proceeded."  Accord- 
ing to  the  authentic  accounts,  he  and  the  Christian  Fathers 
were  competitors  in  miracles.  His  influence,  doctrines  and 
wonders,  so  aniioyed  them,  they  proverbially  called  all 
heretics,  "disciples  and  successors  of  Simon,  the  Samaritan 
magician."  They  did  not  question  the  genuineness  of  his 
miracles,  but  were  evidently  jealous  of  his  success,  and 
attributed  it  to  the  agency  of  evil  spirits.  All  the  marvels 
related  of  him  are  philosophically  traceable  to  psychology  or 
real  spirit  power.  "The  fathers  of  the  Church,  Clemens 
Romanus  and  Anastasius  Sinaita,"  says  a  writer,  "have  pre- 
sented us  with  a  detail  of  the  wonders  he  actually  performed." 
As  cases  showing  his  mediumship  to  be  reliable  and  explain- 
able on  the  laws  of  Spiritual  Philosophy,  occurring  in  the 
present,  we  quote  from  the  historian  :  "He  flew  along  in  the 
air  ;  bolts  and  chains  were  impotent  to  detain  him  ;  he  made 
all  the  furniture  of  the  house  and  the  table  to  change  places, 
as  required,  without  a  visible  mover ;  he  walked  through 
streets  attended  with  a  multitude  of  strange  forms,  which  he 
affirmed  to  be  the  souls  of  the  departed." 

Cerenthus,  a  highly  educated  Jew  and  spiritual  reformer, 
connected  with  the  Alexandrian  school,  professed  to  believe 
in  Jesus,  but  was  deeply  tinged,  in  thought,  with  the  oriental 
ideas  in  respect  to  spirit  and  matter.  He  rejected  the  dogma 
of  the  incarnation  of  Jesus,  being  unwilling  to  suppose  that 
a  Son  of  Geo.  could  be  born  of  woman.  Like  some  of  our 
modern  thinkers,  he  considered  Christ  a  spirit  who  dwelt 
in  the  divine  presence  before  the  world  was  made,  and  that 
the  Jesus  of  Galilee  was  a  mere  man,  son  of  Joseph  and 
Mary.  Grounded  upon  the  philoso})hical  basis  of  personal 
merit,  as  the  data  of  redemption,  he  sensibly  concluded 
that  his  Christ-angel,  descending  in  the  form  of  a  dove,  bap- 
tized him  into  the  full  glory  of  celestial  truth  ;  and  that 
through  the  culture  of  the  graces — tenderness,  justice  and 


MEDIEVAL  —  TRANSITIONAL.  117 

wisdom,  in  union  with  deep  soul  sympathy  with  minister- 
ing spirits,  he  became,  in  a  special  sense,  a  Son  of  God — a 
leader  of  heavenly  hosts,  and  thereby  enabled  to  work 
miracles.  Versed  in  the  allegorical  doctrines  of  Philo, 
accepting  the  mediumship  of  Jesus,  "he  regarded  Jehovah  as 
merely  the  delegated  Creator,  ruler  of  this  world — a  subaltern 
spirit,  unacquainted  with  the  character  and  purpose  of  the 
Supreme  God,  and  incapable  of  appreciating  Him.  He 
admitted  there  are  many  good  things  in  the  Hebrew  Sacred 
Books ;  but  considered  them  revelations  of  an  inferior  order 
of  spirits  ;  and  that  an  angel  instructed  Moses  in  legislation." 
Morally  modest,  he  attributed  his  own  miraculous  gifts  to 
spirits  and  angels.  Traveling  to  Ephesus,  in  the  capacity  of 
a  teacher,  he  there  met,  as  the  early  Fathers  state,  the 
apostle  John,  with  whom  he  conversed  upon  mind  and 
matter,  and  "eternal  life." 


Chaptef^  XV, 


APOSTOLIC. 


"As  pure,  white  light  through  colored  glass, 
Truth  glimmers  through  the  soul, 
And  gives  a  glimpse,  in  broken  parts, 
Of  one  grand,  perfect  whole." 

PoLYCARP,  Ignatius,  Clement,  ApoUinaris,  and  others,  priv- 
ileged with  the  personal  presence  of  the  first  spiritualized 
disciples  of  Christ,  have  received  the  appropriate  appellation 
of  Apostolic  Fathers.  Blessed  with  direct  inspiration  from 
the  spirit  of  Jesus  and  Syrian  seers,  summering  in  the 
heavens,  we  instinctively  revere  the  divine  utterances  that 
welled  from  the  inner  fountains  of  their  souls,  and  whatever 
spiritual  phenomena  they  mediumistically  evolved  for  the 
enlightenment  of  humanity. 

PoLYCARP,  a  Smyrnian  bishop  of  eastern  origin,  was,  in 
childhood,  a  slave,  and  by  Calisto,  a  charitable  lady,  redeemed 
from  bondage,  in  consequence  of  an  angelic  dream,  and  edu- 
cated at  her  expense.  The  later  Christian  Fathers  aver  that 
he  listened  to  the  preaching  of  the  apostle  John,  led  a  blame- 
less life,  presided  over  the  Smyrnian  church  with  assiduous 
fidelity,  and  was  wonderfully  empowered  with  spiritual  gifts. 
During  the  persecutions  under  Marcus  Aurelius,  the  infuri- 
ated populace  demanded  his  death.  Conscious  of  approach- 
ing danger,  and  occupied  in  prayer,  he  saw,  in  a  vision,  his 
*'pilbw  all  ou  fire,"  and  exclaimed — "I  shall  certainly  be 

XX8 


MEDIAEVAL  —  APOSTOLIC.  119 

burnt  alive!'*  These  words  were  regarded  as  prophetic. 
On  the  way  to  the  stake,  amid  the  jeers  and  excitements  oi 
Jiws  and  Greeks,  followed  by  a  few  sorrowing  friends,  the 
venerable  prisoner  was  calm  and  serene  as  sunlight;  and 
when  approaching  the  fatal  scene,  a  loud  and  distinct  voice 
was  heard  to  exclaim,  as  from  heaven — "Polycarp,  he  firm!'' 

Ignatius,  bishop  of  Antioch,  and  a  loved  and  prominent 
disciple  of  the  apostle  John,  is  said  to  have  been  one  of  the 
little  children  whom  Jesus  took  in  his  arms  and  blessed. 
The  church  fathers  record  the  fact,  that,  in  youth,  he  was 
"so  innocent  he  could  hear  the  angels  sing."  This  heavenly 
music  so  impressed  his  mind,  that,  when  becoming  a  bishop, 
he  introduced  into  liturgical  service  the  practice  of  singing 
in  responses,  just  as  he  had  heard,  in  youthful  years,  the 
laughing  melodies  of  immortal  choirs.  Arrested  by  Trajan, 
he  was  thrown  into  chains,  and  s'^nt  to  Rome,  to  be  exposed 
to  lions  in  the  amphitheater.  On  the  way  thither,  conscious 
of  attending  angels,  inflamed  with  divine  ecstacy,  he  ex- 
claimed, in  language  worthy  the  heroic  reformer — "  Let 
them  rack  my  limbs,  break  my  bones,  bruise  my  whole 
body,  hang  me  on  the  cross,  burn  me  with  fire,  throw  me 
into  the  jaws  of  furious  beasts ;  I  care  not  for  all  the 
torments  the  devil  can  invent,  so  that  I  may  have  the 
consciousness  of  right,  and  the  personal  approval  of 
Christ."  When  he  passed  through  the  city  of  Smyrna,  in 
chains,  the  people  embraced  him  and  wept ;  kissing  his  hands, 
his  garments,  and  his  chains,  rejoicing  in  his  courage."  How 
beautiful  his  character!  how  inspiring  his  example! 

Apollinaris,  the  Ravennian  bishop  of  note,  according  to  the 
ecclesiastic  historians,  accompanied  Peter,  as  an  assistant,  to 
Rome.  Here  thai  apostle  laid  his  hands  upon  him,  and  com- 
municated the  gifts  of  the  Holy  Spirit;  that  is,  a  most  excel- 
lent spirit  influence.  Preaching  on  the  eastern  coast  of  Italy, 
he  is  said  to  have  silenced  the  oracles  in  Roman  temples,  and 
**  caused  deceiving  spv.ts  to  depart  therefrom."     Attractive 


120  DOCTRINES   OP   SPIRITUALISTS. 

ill  person,  bold  in  enunciation,  and  miraculously  gifted,  he 
psychologized  vast  multitudes.  Historians  relate  that  he 
once  saw  a  poor  boy,  born  blind,  washing  his  rags  outside  he 
city;  and,  moved  with  compassion,  he  made  the  sign  of  :he 
cross  on  his  eyes,  (spiritual  impressibility)  and  immediately 
he  received  his  sight.*'  This  miracle,  so  potent  for  good,  as 
we  naturally  infer  from  our  own  observation,  was  the  means 
of  converting  the  father,  a  Roman  soldier,  and  all  his  house- 
hold. Among  the  instances  of  his  healing,  may  be  men- 
tioned that  of  a  distinguished  gentleman  of  Rome,  for  several 
years  dumb,  who,  hearing  of  Apollinaris,  sent  for  him,  and 
was  instantly  cured.  In  this  family,  finding  a  case  of  obses- 
sion, he  cast  out  a  demon.  This  remarkable  achievement 
concerted  the  family,  with  five  hundred  more,  to  the 
•p'.ntuMistic  principles  of  Jesus. 


Chaptef^  xyi. 


POST -APOSTOLIC. 


"Gather  up  the  fragments  thait  nothing  be  lost." 

♦♦Still  gathering  as  they  pour  along, 
The  voice  more  loud,  the  tide  more  strong." 

Like  mile-posts  on  the  panoramic  highway  of  life,  burring 
with  many-colored  lights,  indicating  the  true  line  of  spiritual 
progress,  loom  up  in  bold  relief  the  church  fathers  of  the 
succeeding  centuries — Irenseus,  Justin  Martyr,  Tatian  the 
Assyrian,  Turtullian,  Clement  of  Alexandria,  Origen,  Cyp- 
rian, and  others — who  officially  represent  the  continuous 
revelations  of  heaven. 

Iren^us,  whose  name  signifies  peaceable,  an  admirer  of  the 
apostle  John,  was  endowed  w^ith  prophetic  gifts.  As  quoted 
by  Eusebius,  those  times  were  not  so  potent  in  spirit  influx, 
as  in  the  palmy  days  of  the  apostles ;  but  in  cases  of  neces- 
sity, when  a  whole  congregation,  by  fasting  and  prayer, 
adjusted  themselves  in  harmony  with  the  spirit-batteries,  the 
seeming  dead  have  been  restored  to  life.  "  Some  most 
certainly,"  says  Ireneeus,  "cast  out  demons;  others  have  a 
knowledge  of  things  to  come,  as  also  visions  and  prophetic 
communications ;  and  others  still  heal  the  sick  by  the  impo- 
sition of  hands.  *****  ^Ye  hear  of  many  of  the 
brethren  in  the  church  who  have  prophetic  gifts,  and  who 
speak  in  all  tongues  through  the  Spirit,  (spirit-influences)  and 
who  also  bring  to  light  the  secret  things  of  men  for  their 

121 


122  DOCtHINES   0^  SPlRttUALISTS. 

benefit,  and  expound  the  mysteries  of  God."  Eusebius,  in 
referring  to  the  reasons  why  these  spiritual  gifts  had 
measurably  dec  ined  in  the  church,  in  his  time,  asserts  that 
"  the  churches  had  become  unworthy  of  (hemJ' 

Justin  Martyr,  of  Grecian  descent,  familiar,  in  his  youth, 
with  the  doctrines  of  Zeno  and  Aristotle,  mingled,  in  after 
years,  the  acknowledged  dogmas  of  the  church  with  the 
Platonic  philosophy.  This  Grecian  culture  the  better  pre- 
pared him  to  analyze  the  laws  of  mind  and  its  relations  with 
this  and  the  spirit- world.  With  Philo,  he  declared  that  "  no 
man  had  ever  seen  God  the  Father,"  but  that  "  it  was  our 
Christ,  or  an  angel,  who  spoke  to  Moses  from  the  bush,  in 
the  form  of  fire,  and  said,  '  Put  off  thy  shoes.'  "  In  a  book 
ascribed  to  Justin  Martyr,  it  is  stated  that  "demons,  spirits 
of  the  dead,  still  speak  by  those  who  are  called  ventrilo- 
quists." In  his  famous  Apology,  he  teaches  that,  "when 
God  created  the  world,  he  committed  the  superintendence 
of  it  to  angels."  Maintaining  the  plausible  doctrines  of 
obsessions,  he  affirmed  that  evil  demons  "inflamed  women, 
corrupted  boj^s,  and  spread  terrors  among  those  who  did  not 
examine  things  by  reason."  Kot  realizing  they  were  a  lower 
order  of  spirits,  "  they  called  them  gods,  and  gave  to  each 
the  name  he  claimed  for  himself;  but  Socrates  endeavored 
to  expose  their  practices,  and  by  true  reason  draw  men  away 
from  their  influences,  and  the  demons,  by  the  help  of  wicked 
men,  caused  this  Grecian  philosopher  to  be  put  to  death  as 
an  atheist  and  impious  person."  According  to  certain  phe- 
nomena of  the  present,  docs  not  this  statement  concerning 
Socrates  bear  the  semblance  of  truth  ? 

Tertullian,  son  of  a  Roman  centurion,  at  Carthage,  160  A. 
D.,  distinguished  for  his  great  eloquence,  and  for  his  familiarity 
with  Grecian  and  Roman  literature,  positive  and  vindictive 
in  nature,  and  given  to  controversy,  was  fearless  in  his  affir- 
mations of  spiritual  gifts  and  communications.  In  his  cele- 
brated work,  "De  Anima,"  he  says:   "We  had  a  right  to 


MEDIEVAL  —  I»OSt-At»OStOLtC.  128 

expect,  after  what  was  said  bj  St.  John,  to  anticipate  prophe- 
cies; and  we  not  only  acknowledge  these  spiritual  gifts,  but 
we  are  permitted  to  enjoy  the  gifts  of  a  prophetess.  There 
is  a  sister  among  us  who  possesses  a  faculty  of  revelation. 
Commonly,  during  religious  service,  she  falls  into  a  trance, 
holding  then  communion  with  the  angels,  beholding  Jesus 
himself,  hearing  divine  mysteries  explained,  reading  the 
hearts  of  some  persons,  and  administering  to  such  as 
require  it.  When  the  Scriptures  are  read,  or  Psalms  sung, 
spiritual  beings  minister  visions  to  her.  We  were  speaking 
of  the  soul  once,  when  our  sister  was  in  the  spirit  (entranced); 
and,  the^  people  departing,  she  then  communicated  to  us 
what  she  had  seen  in  her  ecstacy,  which  was  afterwards 
closely  inquired  into  and  tested.  She  declared  ^she  had  seen 
a  soul  in  bodily  shape,  that  appeared  to  be  a  spirit,  neither 
empty  nor  formless,  but  so  real  and  substantial,  that  it  might 
be  touched.  It  was  tender,  shining  of  the  color  of  the  air, 
but  in  everything  resembling  the  human  form.' " 

As  an  exhibition  of  Tertullian's  ferocity  of  nature,  posi- 
tiveness  of  willj  and  assurance  of  spiritual  ability,  as  well  as 
faith  in  angel  ministry,  he  says :  "  If  a  man  calls  himself  a 
Christian,  and  cannot  expel  a  demon,  let  iiim  be  put  to 
DEATH  ON  THE  SPOT !  "  liofcrring  to  the  controlling  intelli- 
gences of  ^jsculapius,  Thanatius,  and  other  oracles,  he  asserts, 
with  fierce  authority — "  Unless  these  confess  themselves  to 
be  demons,  not  daring  to  lie  unto  a  Christian,  then  shed  the 

BLOOD    OF    that    MOST    IMPOTENT    CHRISTIAN  !  "      To   SUit   the 

action  to  the  w^ord,  he  commanded,  "Let  some  one  be 
brought  forward  at  the  foot  of  your  judgment  seat,  who  it  is 
agreed  is  possessed  with  a  demon.  When] ordered  by  any 
Christian  to  speak,  that  spirit  shall  as  truly  declare  itself  a 
demon,  as  elsewhere  falsely  a  god.''  Tertullian,  highly 
susceptible,  was  evidently  contin^lled  by  a  spirit  on  a  very 
low  plane;  but  being  powerful  and  electric,  he  could  easily 
dispossess  any  negative  medium,  even  of  a  celestial  angel. 
His  success  in  this  psychological  art,  was,  therefore,  no 
criterion   of  moral   or  religious  superiority,  but  simply  of 


124  DOCTRINES    OF   SPIRITUALISTS. 

physical  and   mental,   which,   like   Milton's    fabled   Satan, 
defied  the  Almightj- ,  and  made  war  against  him  in  heaven ! 

Hermas,  brother  to  Pius,  a  bip.liop  of  Rome,  wrote  his 
"  Pastor  "  about  the  middle  of  the  second  century.  This  book 
is  more  appropriately  known  as  "  The  Shepherd  of  Hermas.'* 
Its  contents,  divided  into  "Visions,  Commands,  and  Simili- 
tudes," remind  one  of  the  visions  and  angelic  interviews  of 
Ezekiel.  Origen  expresses  the  opinion  that  his  books  were 
divinely  inspired.  They  give  an  account  of  the  "Visions  of 
Hermas,"  seen  in  his  superior  state,  and  generally  inter- 
preted in  a  symbolical  sense.  Evidently,  his  epistles  were 
too  spiritual  to  be  voted  canonical.  In  the  ninth  of  his 
"  Similitudes,"  an  ancient  white  stone  of  immense  magni- 
tude is  described,  which  had  a  new  gate  opened  in  it;  and 
in  the  "  Visions,"  Hermas  relates  that  he  saw  six  young 
men,  "or  rather  angels  clothed  in  shining  vestures,  building 
a  tower  of  square  white  stones,  symbolic  of  the  church 
militant."  A  writer  in  Appleton's  Biographical  Cyclopedia, 
edited  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  F.  L.  Hawks,  speaking  of  this  book 
of  Hermas,  remarks,  that  "  it  is  further  interesting  because 
affording  evidence  that  the  early  Christians  believed  in  the 
ministration  of  angels  around  them." 


MoNTANUS,  a  Phrygian  bishop,  flourishing  in  the  second 
century,  preached  a  firm  and  fervid  Spiritualism,  attracting 
immense  crowds.  He  contended  that  every  true  believer  in 
Christ  received  a  direct  inspiration.  This  he  based  upon 
the  prophecy  of  Joel — "  I  will  pour  out  my  spirit  upon  all 
flesh."  Judaism  was  to  him  the  morning-youth;  Christi- 
anity, the  manhood;  the  post-apostolic,  the  culmination  or 
diffusiveness  of  spiritual  gifts.  Gifted  with  prophetic  power, 
he  maintained  that  himself,  and  two  leading  prophetesses, 
had  received  the  fulness  of  the  Divine  Spirit,  through  whose 
agency  all  holy  works  are  wrought. 


MEDIEVAL  —  POST-APOLISTIC.  125 

OrigeNj  born  in  Alexandria,  185  A.  D.,  consecrated  himself 
to  spiritual  development  by  extreme  abstemiousness,  through 
spirits,  who  thus  taught  him  the  purer  inspirations  of  nature. 
lie  attended  the  lectures  where  Platonism  was  inculcated, 
under  the  tuition  of  the  celebrated  Ammonius  Saccas,  which 
accounts  for  much  of  his  peculiar  religious  structure.  Con- 
spicuous among  his  popular  teachings,  were  summarily 
thase — That  God  is  immanent  in  all  space;  that  stars  have 
souls,  and  sang  together  on  the  morn  of  creation ;  that 
angelic  beings  have  the  government  of  fruits  and  seasons ; 
that  angels  have  etherial  bodies,  and  evil  spirits  have  grosser 
organisms;  that  all  humaii  souls  are  fellow-spirits  who 
sinned  in  some  previous  existence,  but,  entering  human 
bodies,  would  finally  be  restored  to  holiness  and  happiness; 
and  that  ''  all  the  holy  men  who  have  departed  from  this  life, 
retaining  their  charity  toward  those  whom  they  left  behind, 
are  anxious  for  their  salvation,  and  assist  them  by  their 
prayers,  and  their  mediation  with  God."  Origen  says : 
"  There  are  no  longer  any  prophets  or  miracles  among  the 
Jews,  but  many  vestiges  of  miraculous  works  among  the 
Christians;  namely,  in  the  middle  of  the  third  century. 
Gregory,  Origen's  pupil,  and  bishop  of  Csesaria  in  Pontus, 
was  so  famous  for  his  miracles,  that  he  was  styled  Thauma- 
turgus,  the  wonder-worker."  This  Christian  Father  further 
believed,  that  by  prayer  and  the  repetition  of  sacred  writings, 
"  demons  could  be  cast  out  and  numberless  evils  averted." 

Cyprian,  bishop  of  Carthage,  educated  in  the  most  refined 
school  of  Roman  theology,  rigorous  towards  heretics,  was 
gifted  in  spiritual  powers,  and,  in  common  with  his 
coadjutors,  was  an  earnest  advocate  of  the  then  popular 
Spiritualism  of  the  church.  In  youth  he  had  a  vision, 
which  he  himself  thus  relates :  "  Whilst  quite  awake, 
I  saw  a  young  man  of  more  than  mortal  stature,  who 
showed  him  himself,  led  before  the  pro-consul  and  con- 
demned to  be  beheaded,  as  a  martyr  to  Christianity. 
Accordingly,  when  it  came  to  pass,  he  knew  exactly  how 


126  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

and  when  it  would  take  place."  In  agreement  with  his 
cotemporary,  he  taught  that  evil  spirits  obsess  mortals,  that 
they  lurk  around  tutelary  statues,  inspire  soothsayers,  excite 
terror  in  the  minds  of  men,  disturb  their  sleep,  destroy  their 
health,  etc.,  and  "then  either  vanish  immediately,  or  go  out 
gradually,  according  to  the  faith  of  the  patient,  or  the  grace 
of  him  who  effects  the  cjre.*'  lie  declares  that  "  there  is  no 
measure  or  rule  in  the  dispensation  of  the  gifts  of  heaven,  as 
in  the  gifts  of  earth.  The  spirit  is  poured  forth  liberally, 
without  limits  or  barriers,  t-  -i^  ^  *  =!=  Besides  visions 
of  the  night,  even  boys  among  us  are  filled  with  the  Holy 
Spirit,  and  in  fits  of  ecstacy  see,  hear  and  speak  things  by 
which  the  Lord  (a  leader  or  angelic  being)  thinks  lit  to 
instruct  us." 

Either  through  candid  ignorance  of  the  law,  or  inexcusable 
bigotry,  the  bishop  of  Antioch,  Theophilus,  avers  that  it  was 
evil  spirits  who  inspired  the  prophets  of  Greece  and  Rome — 
''  The  truth  of  this  is  manifestly  shown,  because  those  who  are 
possessed  by  demons,  even  to  this  day,  are  sometimes  exor- 
cised by  us  in  the  name  of  God ;  and  the  seducing  spirits 
confess  themselves  to  be  the  same  demons  who  before 
inspired  the  gentile  poets." 

The  honest  reader  will  clearly  discover  the  deep  and  nur- 
tured jealousy  existing  between  the  Classics  and  Christians, 
and  the  studied  effort  at  the  mastery  over  each  other's 
oracles;  and  draw  his  conclusions,  not  from  apparent 
victory — because  of  better  battery  forces — but  according  to 
justice  and  integrity,  crediting  Egyptian,  Jewish  and  Grecian 
Spiritualists  with  the  virtue  justlj^  their  due. 

We  have  the  most  abundant  proof  of  the  continuance  of 
spiritual  gifts  and  converse  with  the  immortals,  both  from  the 
of  classic  and  ecclesiastic  writers,  during  the  first  six  centuries 
the  Christian  era.  Among  the  church  historians  who  treated 
directly  of  this  matter,  were  Eusebius,  Socrates,  Scholasticus, 
Sozomeu,  Theodoret  and  Evagrius.  Hegisippus  and  Papias, 
who  preceded  Eusebius,  testify  to  the  prevalence  of  spiritual 
dreams,  prophecies,  trances  and  seership,  in  their  age. 


MRt)IJ^lVAL  —  I'OST-ArOLTSTrC.  127 

Gregory,  a  Thaumaturgist,  and  noted  disciple  of  Origen, 
^as  famous  for  the  great  number  of  miracles  or  spiritual 
manifestations,  wrought  through  his  mediatorial  organization. 

Augustine,  flourishing  about  the  middle  of  the  fifth 
oenturj,  bears  multiform  testimony  to  the  continuance  of  the 
miraculous  gifts  of  Christians.  "  Besides  the  restoration  of 
a  child  to  life,  he  relates  twenty  miracles  performed  under 
his  observation  within  the  space  of  two  years." 

Ambrose,  living  towards  the  end  of  the  fourth  century, 
is  stated  to  have  fallen  asleep  (entranced)  at  the  altar  on  a 
certain  Sunday,  remaining  so  for  several  hours,  to  the  great 
wonder  of  the  people.  Awakening,  he  declared  that  he  had 
attended  the  funeral  of  St.  Martin,  and  performed  the 
service.  The  fact  noted,  it  was  ascertained  that  St.  Martin 
had  died  at  the  time  specified  by  this  seer.  He  also  assures 
us  that  "  the  martyr  Agnes  was  seen  one  night  at  her  grave, 
surrounded  by  a  choir  of  singing  maidens." 

Jerome,  living  in  the  fifth  century,  relates  numerous 
miracles  occurring  in  his  time,  such  as  "  the  restoration  of 
sight  to  a  woman  ten  years  blind,  the  instant  cure  of  paral- 
ysis, and  the  casting  out  of  demons.  "These  miracles 
are  paralleled  by  what  are  now  denominated  "  spiritual 
manifestations." 

Mosheim,  (vol.  i.  p.  104)  in  his  ecclesiastical  history,  says : 

"  The  light  of  the  Gospel  was  introduced  into  Iberia,  a  province  of 
Asia  (now  called  Georgia),  in  the  following  manner :  a  certain  woma-n 
was  carried  into  that  country  as  a  captive,  during  the  reign  of  Con- 
stantine ;  and  by  the  grandeur  of  her  miracles,  and  the  remarkable 
sanctity  of  her  life  and  manners,  she  made  such  an  impression  upon  the 
king  and  queen,  that  they  abandoned  their  false  gods,  embraced  the 
faith  of  the  Gospel,  and  sent  to  Constantinople  for  proper  persons  to 
give  them  and  their  people  a  more  satisfactory  and  complete  knowledge 
of  the  Christian  religion/' 


128  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

This  was  in  the  fourth  century.  After  maturely  consider- 
ing the  whole  ground  and  all  the  authorities,  on  the  next 
page  he  says  : 

"  I  am  willing  to  grant,  that  many  events  have  been  rashly  deemed 
miraculous  which  were  the  result  of  the  ordinary  laws  of  nature ;  and, 
also  that  pious  frauds  were  sometimes  used  for  the  purpose  of  giving 
new  degrees  of  weight  and  dignity  to  the  Christian  cause.  But  I 
cannot,  on  the  other  hand,  assent  to  the  opinions  of  those  who  maintain 
that  in  this  century,  miracles  had  entirely  ceased;  and  that,  at  this 
period,  the  Christian  Church  was  not  favored  with  any  extraordinary 
or  supernatural  mark  of  a  Divine  power  engaged  in  its  cauye." 

Constantine's  reign  infused  a  sort  of  pride  into  the  Chris- 
tianity of  that  and  subsequent  centuries.  With  national 
ambition  and  individual  worldliness  spurred  to  intense 
action  by  reigning  rival  powers,  there  commenced  about  this 
time  a  rapid  decline  of  spiritual  gifts  among  nominal  chris- 
tians, forcibly  reminding  one  of  the  Apostle  Paul's  prophecy 
of  the  "falling  away''  that  should  come.  Christianity,  a 
shell  devoid  the  spirit-substance,  still  flounders  in  this 
"fallen"  condition. 


Chaptei^  xyii, 


NEO-PLATONIO 


"We  lack  but  open  eye  and  ear 
To  find  the  Orient's  marvels  here. 
****** 

For  still  the  new  transcends  the  old 
In  signs  and  tokens  manifold." 

As  Paris  to  France  socially,  as  Jerusalem  to  Syria  reli- 
giously, as  Ephesus  to  the  thinkers  of  Southern  Asia  irl.eally, 
80  Alexandria  to  all  nations  of  the  first  Christian  centuries. 
Founded  by  Alexander  the  Great,  on  the  commercial  tho- 
roughfare between  Europe  and  Asia,  it  was  the  center  of 
philosophy,  the  birth-place  of  symbols,  the  arena  of  all  new 
theories,  attractive  for  her  unparalleled  libraries,  numbering, 
in  her  palmier  period,  seven  hundred  thousand  books,  and 
celebrated  for  accommodating,  at  one  time  within  her  classic 
precincts,  fourteen  thousand  students  !  The  literary  world  in 
miniature,  her  fountains  of  truth,  flowing  over  all  deserts 
and  ruins  and  mausoleums  and  Edens  of  beauty,  have  bathed 
the  whole  earth  in  historic  and  inspirational  wisdom.  Her 
eclectic  professors,  cooling  the  egotistic  ardor  of  the  Church 
Fathers,  plucked  their  boasted  plumes  by  exhibiting  superior 
art  and  literature,  magic  and  miracle. 

This  Alexandrian  school  of  philosophy,  based  upon  the 
psychological  systems  of  Pythagoras  and  Plato,  drew  its  pri- 
mal inspirations  from  India  and  Egypt,  and,  amalgamating 
with,  overshadowed  the  dogmas  of  Christianitji 
9  129 


130  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

Dion  Chrysostom,  writing  in  the  time  of  Trajan,  says:  "1 
Bee  among  you  Alexandrians,  not  only  Greeks  and  Italians, 
Syrians,  Sybians,  Ethiopians  and  Arabians,  but  Bactrians, 
Scythians,  Persians,  and  travelers  from  India,  who  flow 
together  into  this  city,  and  are  always  with  you/' 

Gnosticism,  {ginosko,  to  know)  budding  in  the  first,  bios 
Bomed  more  fully  among  educated  classes  in  the  second 
century.  The  Gnostics  were  Inductionists.  Gnosis  was 
considered  a  divine  sciefice;  and,  wielded  by  those  metaphys- 
ical thinkers,  successfully  contended  against  Christianity,  in 
the  estimation  of  the  literati.  It  is  averred,  with  great  plau- 
sibility, that  the  Asiatic  Gnostics  were  personally  acquainted 
with  the  Gymnosophists  of  India  and  the  Magi  of  Persia. 
The  Christian  Fathers,  owing  to  a  lack  of  literary  culture, 
were  disinclined  to  meet  them  in  discussion.  Mani,  born  in 
Persia,  Marcus  Tatian,  Cerinthus,  the  father  of  Gregory,  of 
Nazianzen,  were  prominent  among  the  Gnostics.  These, 
with  others  of  the  same  school,  held  to  the  oriental  philo- 
sophiv^al  theory,  that  all  spirits  emanated  from  God,  and  were 
a  part  of  him  ;  that  angels,  by  divine  appointment,  exercised 
a  superintendence  over  the  affairs  of  this  world  as  guardians; 
that  mortals  had  the  high  privilege  of  communion  w^ith  these 
celestials ;  that  Christ,  as  a  heavenly  spirit,  was  not  invested 
with  a  mortal  body  after  his  resurrection,  or,  better,  emanci- 
pation ;  that  souls,  as  cenons,  emanating  from  the  infinit.e 
fountain  of  Deity,  by  a  law  of  progress,  returned  purified 
to  the  bosom-source  whence  they  came.  Clement  of  Alex- 
andria, says:  *' Their  worship  consists  in  continual  attention 
to  their  souls;  in  meditations  upon  the  Divinity,  as  being 
inexhaustible  love." 

Ammonius  Saccas,  profound,  scholarly  and  eclectic,  com- 
bining in  his  rare  organism  the  extremes  of  conservatism 
and  radicalism,  organized  this  famous  school  about  the  year 
220  A.  D.  Plotinus,  Porphyry,  Proclus,  Jamblichus,  and 
others,  rejecting  the  mouldy  crumbs  of  Hebrew  revelations, 
and  versed  in  the  elements  and  principles  characterizing  the 


MEDIEVAL  —  NEO-PLATONIC.  131 

oriental  theosophies,  were  among  the  enninent- disciples  of 
Ammonius.  His  lofty  purpose  was  to  combine  the  good  and 
beautiful  found  in  the  theologies  and  philosophies  of  India, 
Egypt,  China,  Persia,  Judea,  Greece  and  Rome,  in  fact,  all 
nations  in  all  times,  and  out  of  these  vast  materials  to  form 
a  grand  eclecticism,  alive  with  all  the  thought,  wisdom  and 
virtue  of  the  ages,  like  a  superb  temple  compounded  of  all 
the  kingdoms  of  life  in  the  universe. 

Plotinus,  eleven  years  the  student  of  Ammonius  Saccas, 
retaining  his  Egyptian  icliosyncracies,  educated  at  Alexan- 
dria, and  of  immeasurable  influence  in  society,  was  the 
inspiring  animus  of  Neo-Platonism^  and  gave  to  it  much  of 
its  prestige  and  fame  in  the  world.  His  metaphysical  doc- 
trines run  thus:  That  there  is  one  God,  the  perfect,  uncre- 
ated principle;  that  Wisdom  is  the  Logos  of  the  good;  that 
from  Wisdom  and  Love  proceeded  the  souls  of  all  things; 
that  the  human  soul,  an  essential  portion  of  the  Diviiie  Soul, 
can,  in  its  highest  states,  penetrate  into  all  worlds'  mysteries, 
and  hold  communion  with  the  essence  of  things;  that  this 
life  is  a  mere  flash  of  light,  which  God,  in  his  goodness, 
grants  to  souls  for  a  season ;  that,  whilst  this  earth-life  lasts, 
memory  of  the  prior  existence  vanishes,  but  in  the  next  life, 
the  mind  beholds  the  past,  present  and  future,  at  one  glance; 
that  poets,  lovers,  musicians,  philosophers,  more  etherial 
winged,  can  the  easier  ascend  into  the  superior  regions;  that 
miracles  are  in  harmony  with  fixed  principles  of  the  uni- 
verse; that  self-denial  of  all  lusts  and  passions  is  inductive 
to  conscious  communication  with  and  glory  of  the  gods,  or 
angels.  His  enthusiastic  disciples  ascribed  to  him  mirac- 
ulous gifts.  In  their  writings  it  is  frequently  afiirmed  that 
he  could  discern  the  secret  thoughts  of  men.  When  Por- 
phyry contemplated  suicide,  he  discovered  it  without  the 
least  outward  intimation.  When  a  theft  had  been  commit- 
ted in  the  house,  he  collected  the  domestics  and  immediately 
pointed  out  the  culprit,  without  asking  a  (question.    Thej 


132  DOCTRINES    OF   SPIRITUALISTS. 

requested  him  to  evoke  his  guardian  spirit,  which  the  Gre 
cians  called  his  *'  demon.''  He  refused  for  a  lon,^  time. 
Fiiiall}',  yielding  to  their  entreaties,  they  saw  a,  god  appear  in 
their  midst.  He  healed  the  most  dangerous  diseases, 
ohtained  great  reputation  for  foretelling  future  events,  and 
walked  in  daily  converse  with  spirits  and  angels.  Emilius, 
urging  him  to  attend  the  services  of  the  church,  he  replied, 
"  The  spirits  must  come  to  me,  not  I  to  the  spirits."  After 
his  departure  to  the  spirit  world,  in  the  sixty-sixth  year  of 
his  age,  his  friends  inquired  of  an  oracle  as  to  the  residence 
of  his  soul.  The  response  was  given  in  verse,  to  the  effect, 
that  owing  to  his  gentleness,  goodness,  elevated  ideas,  puritj' 
of  life,  his  soul  had  rejoined  the  just  spirits  of  Minos,  Rhada- 
manthus  and  ^acus.  By  virtue  of  these  graces  he  was  per- 
mitted to  behold,  face  to  face,  the  more  exalted  and  glorified 
of  the  celestial  worlds. 

Porphyry,  of  Phoenecian  descent,  was  one  of  the  most  dis- 
tinguished disciples  of  Plotinus,  succeeding  him  in  the  third 
century  as  president  of  the  Alexandrian  school.  It  is  as 
morally  impossible  for  a  Koman  Church  father  to  speak  or 
write  impartially  of  Porphyry,  as  for  a  modern  Protestant  of 
the  orthodox  school,  to  award  Spiritualists  their  just  position. 
Deeply  read  in  the  lore  of  the  past,  an  ardent  admirer  of 
Plato,  Porphyry  is  described  by  the  church  historian,  Nean- 
der,  as  "a  man  of  noble  spirit,  united  with  profound  intel- 
lectual attainments  ;  a  man  of  the  East,  in  whom  the  oriental 
basis  of  character  had  been  completely  fused  with  th 
elements  of  Grecian  culture."  He  devoted  much  time  t 
the  study  of  magic,  called  Theurgy ;  to  the  psychologic  ad 
mystic  relations  of  mind  to  mind;  to  the  necessity  of  self 
abnegation,  as  preparatory  to  the  highest  angelic  coin- 
munion  ;  and,  like  his  predecessors,  Ammonius  and  Plotinus, 
he  sought  to  establish  a  universal  eclecticism  in  religion. 
Nearly  all  his  works  against  Christianity  were  burned  by 
Christians — a  proof  this  of  their  inestimable  value.  When  a 
sectarian  man  cannot  meet  his  r.eio^hbor  with  sound  reason, 


MEDIEVAL  —  NEO-PLATONIC.  133 

he  tries  force,  fire,  perjury,  theft !  They  who  know  the  truth, 
love  criticism  ;  and  rather  than  burn  philosophy,  they  cherish 
it  as  gratefully  as  flowers  do  the  sunshine. 

Porphyry  taught  that  all  religions  have  a  divine  origin ; 
that  a  high  standard  of  morals  and  purity  of  life  are  indis- 
pensable to  happiness;  that  men  are  justified  in  separating 
from  their  angular  wives  to  attain  greater  holiness  and  more 
time  to  devote  to  philosophy;  that  it  is  wrong  to  obey  civil 
laws  when  in  opposition  to  higher  law  written  by  God  in  the 
eternal  constitution  of  the  soul ;  and,  quoting  Apollonius  in 
favor  of  silent  prayer,  that  such  devotion  is  alone  worthy  the 
Supreme  Being.  He  beautifully  says,  that  "Similarities 
unite.  Shut  up  in  the  body,  as  in  a  prison,  we  ought  to  pray 
to  o:ods  and-  ano:els  to  deliver  us  from  our  fetters.  Thev  are 
our  true  fathers;  and  we  ought  to  pray  to  them  like  chil- 
dren exiled  from  the  paternal  mansion."  He  believed  in  the 
controllini^  intelligences  of  heaven,  and  was  much  "impressed 
with  the  power  of  evil  spirits,"  often  referring  to  them  as  the 
cause  of  disease,  personal  quarrels,  and  national  wars.  He 
also  maintained  that  the  spirit  of  prophecy  could  be  attained 
by  abstemious  living;  and  that  his  soul  was  once  so  elevated 
to  a  complete  union  with  God,  he  caught  golden  glimpses  of 
the  eternal  world. 


Jamblichus,  Syrian  by  birth,  student  of  Porphyry,  ap- 
proached, in  prt?ccpt  and  practice,  nearer  the  Nazarene 
than  any  cotemporary  Neo-Platonist.  He  lived  in  the  reigo 
of  Constantine,  when  Indian  philosophy  and  Grecian  theo 
sophy  were  the  cherished  principles  of  the  erudite.  Teaching 
the  oriental  doctrine  of  emanations,  he  mingled  theurg}', 
magic  and  philosophy  in  his  crucible  of  thought,  daily 
inspected  by  Alexandrian  students.  His  disciples  believed  him 
])Os^essed  with  supernatural  power.  History  aflirms,  that 
whilst  engMged  in  prayer,  spirits  raised  him  fifteen  feet  in  the 
air.  Accompanied  by  his  pupils  to  the  baths  of  Gadara,  in 
Syria,  he  ij:;][uired  the  names  of.  two  springs  of  water.     On 


134  DOCTRINES    OF   SPIRITUALISTS. 

beiog  informed  they  were  Eros  and  Anteros — deities  acknowl 
edged  by  the  Greeks — he  scarcely  touched  the  water,  utter- 
ing a  few  words,  when  there  rose  up  before  them  two  beau- 
tiful children,  who  clasped  their  arms  around  Jamblichus' 
neck.  From  this  moment  none  of  his  adherents  doubted 
his  communion  with  the  gods.  His  biographer,  Eunapius,  a 
very  learned  and  conscientious  writer,  narrates  many  other 
miraculous  things  attributed  to  him.  So  wonderful  were 
they,  that  "  neither  Edesius,  nor  his  friends,  have  dared  to 
put  them  in  their  works."  In  order  to  attain  the  highest 
degrees  of  mediumship  —  then  called  Theurgy — he  and  his 
wise  companions,  like  the  Egyptian  Hierophants,  prepared 
themselves  by  fasting,  watching,  praying,  and  devout  reli- 
gious reflection.  These  spiritual  conditions  introduced  into 
realms  of  divine  exaltation,  are  thus  described  by  Jamblichus 
in  his  "  Mysteries ; "  "  The  senses  are  in  a  sleeping  state. 
The  Theurgist  has  no  command  of  his  faculties,  no  conscious- 
ness of  what  he  says  or  does.  =k  *  *  Carried  by  a  divine 
impulse,  he  goes  through  impassable  places,  through  fire  and 
water  without  knowing  where  he  is.  A  divine  illumination 
tiikes  full  possession  of  the  man,  absorbs  all  his  faculties, 
motions,  and  senses ;  making  him  speak  what  he  does  not 
understand,  or  rather  seem  to  speak  it;  for  he  is,  in  fact, 
merely  the  minister,  or  instrument,  of  the  God  who  pos- 
sesses him."  What  a  joerfect  description  of  modern  trance, 
by  this  ancient  Neo-Platonist ! 

Of  prayer,  this  most  devout  philosopher  says :  "  Frequent 
prayer  nourishes  our  superior  part,  renders  the  receptacle  of 
the  soul  more  capacious  for  the  gods,  discloses  divine  things 
to  men,  accustoms  them  with  the  splendors  of  the  world  of 
intelligences,  and  gradually  so  perfects  our  union  with  pure 
spirits,  as  to  lead  us  back  to  the  Supreme  God." 

Jamblichus  was  familiar  with  clairvoyance  in  all  its  phases, 
with  healing  by  spirit  influence,  with  dreams  as  spirit  impres- 
eions,  and  with  the  beauties  and  glories  of  the  trance,  both 
from  observation  and  experience.    He  explains  what  is  said 


MEDIEVAL  —  NEO-PLATONIC.  135 

by  Porphyry :  ^'  That  some  immediately  fall  into  a  trance  oa 
hearing  music;  and  he  shows  an  intimate  acquaintance  with 
instances  of  persons  hearing  most  divine  music,  especially  on 
approaching  death." 

Well,  therefore,  did  Jamblichus,  in  his  celebrated  work  on 
the  "Mysteries,"  assert  that  admissibility  to,  and  communion 
with,  spiritual  beings,  "  is  eternal  and  cotemporary  with  the 

BOUl." 

Proclus,  "the  heir  of  Plato,"  the  ascetic  teacher  of  Athens, 
the  young  prodigy  of  the  Alexandrian  philosophy,  saw,  in  his 
day,  the  culmination  of  I^eo-Platonism.  He  commenced  his 
forty-third  chapter  on  the  theology  of  Plato  thus:  "Let  us 
speak  concerning  the  demons  who  are  allotted  the  superin- 
tendence of  mankind.  *  ^  ^  The  highest  genus  of 
demons,  being  proximate  to  the  gods,  is  uniform  and  divine. 
The  next  in  order  to  these  demons,  possessing  a  highly  intel- 
lectual nature,  preside  over  individuals,  as  well  as  over  the 
ascent  and  descent  of  souls."  The  Egyptian  priests  admired 
Plotinus  as  being  governed  (on  account  of  the  purity  of  his 
life)  b}^  a  divine  demon.  And  with  great  propriety,  also, 
does  Socrates  call  his  demon  a  god,  for  he  belonged  to  the 
first  and  highest  demons.  Proclus  further  says  :  "  Socrates 
perceived  a  certain  voice  proceeding  from  his  demon.  This 
he  asserts  in  the  Theceietus  and  in  the  Phcedrus."  "What  the 
Grecians  termed  "  divine  demons,"  we  denominate  minister- 
ing angel  guides,  who  delight  to  do  the  will  of  the  Eternal 
Father. 


ECTURE     Y. 


Churchal     Spiritualism. 


ChAPTEI\^    XYIIL 


CnURCIIIANIC. 


"Oh,  never  rudely  will  I  blame  their  faith 
In  the  might  of  gods  and  angels  !  "  , 

*' Sometimes  there  glimpses  on  my  sight 
Through  Christian  wrongs  the  eternal  right;     . 
And  step  by  step  since  time  began 
I  see  the  steady  gain  of  man." 

Christianity,  lieretofore  spiritually  spontaneous  as  taught 
by  the  Nazarene,  became  sectarized  and  nationalized — a 
court-religion  under  the  reign  of  Constantine. 

Not  a  vestige  of  similarity  is  traceable  between  the  nature- 
teachings  and  pure,  sweet  life  of  the  gentle  son  of  Joseph  and 
Mary,  and  the  worldly  Christianity  of  the  19th  century. 
From  this  fatal  Constantinian  era,  its  purity  more  rapidly 
paled,  until  an  eclipse  of  spiritual  midnight  brooded  over  its 
blinded  devotees.  Fossils  neither  flash  nor  flame  with  vig- 
orous life.  Few  blossoms  of  inspiration  come  from  a 
leafless,  sapless,  withered  trunk.  When  doctrines,  however 
beautiful,  crystalize  into  creeds,  they  die  and  rust  away 
into  Lethean  forgetfulness. 

Roman  Catholicism,  imitated  by  her  schismatic  daughter. 
Protestantism,  adopted,  in  her  externals,  a  paganized  Judaism, 
combining  the  ceremonials  of  the  Mosaic  and  later  classic, 
with  their  sacerdotal,  hierarchal  paraphernalia,  the  better  to 
seize  and  appropriate  the  more  cultured  religious  theses 
taught  in  the  mystic  temples  of  the  orientals,  for  priestly 

139 


140  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

power  and  worldly  aggrandizement.  As  every  midnight  lias 
its  stars,  and  every  stormy  ocean  its  pearls,  so,  under  the  cold 
drapery  of  the  royalized  church,  were  genuine  silver-glim- 
mei'ings  of  the  aspirational  and  spiritual. 

GuizoT,  in  his  recent  work  entitled,  ''Meditations  upon  the 
lieliglous  Questions  of  the  Day,'^  in  which  he  evidently  uses 
the  word  supernatural  for  spiritual,  says  :  ''  Belief  in  the  super- 
natural is  a  fact  natural,  primitive,  universal  and  constant  in 
the  life  and  history  of  the  human  race.  Unbelief  in  the 
supernatural  begets  materialism,  materialism  sensuality,  sen- 
suality social  convulsion,  amid  w^hose  storms  man  learna 
again  to  believe  and  pray." 

CoNSTANTiNE,  having  espoused  Christianity,  and  being  men- 
aced in  consequence  by  its  enemies,  was  compelled  to  take 
up  arms  for  self-defence.  Eusebius  states  that  he  heard 
Constantino  declare,  under  oath,  that  ''when  ho  was  going 
to  attack  the  tyrant  Maxentius,  and  was  full  of  doubt,  as  he 
was  resting  in  the  middle  of  the  day,  and  his  soldiers  about 
him,  he  and  all  the  soldiers  saw  a  luminous  cross  in  the 
heaveus,  attended  by  a  troop  of  angels,  who  said,  '  0,  Con- 
stant ne  !  by  this  ^o  forth  to  victory ! '  *  *  *  At  night, 
Christ  appeared  to  him  in  a  dream,  having  tl.e  same  cross, 
w^hich  he  ordered  to  have  wrought  upon  his  banners,  with 
the  words,  'P>Y  this  conquer!'  "  Under  this  inspiring  sym- 
bol he  did  conquer. 

Lactantius  corroborates  the  statement,  that  the  sign  of  the 
cross  on  the  shields  of  the  soldiers,  was  put  there  in  conse- 
quence  of  a  vision  or  dream.  Socrates,  Philostorgius,  Gela- 
sius,  Nicephorus,  all  testify  to  the  appearance  of  the  cross  in 
the  sky.  It  was  a  most  magniiicent  psychological  presenta- 
tion, produced  by  ministering  spirits. 

SozoMEN,  a  church  historian  of  the  5th  century,  informs 
as  "that  when  Julian  was  killed  in  Persia,  his  death  was 


CHURCHAL    SPIRITUALISM  —  CHURCHIANIC.  141 

seen  in  Asia  by  one  of  his  officers,  at  a  distance  of  twenty 
days'  travel;  and  by  Didymus,  a  blind  Christian,  in  Egypt." 
He  relates  an  incident  of  Eutycliian,  a  Bithynian  monk,  a 
friend  of  Constantine,  who  desired  the  jailers  to  remove  the- 
fetters  from  a  prisoner  sorely  tortured ;  but,  on  being  refused, 
he  went  to  the  prison,  attended  by  Auscanon,  a  venerable 
presbyter  of  the  church.  At  their  approach  the  doors  of  the 
prison  opened,  and  the  chains  fell  from  the  prisoner's  limbs. 
This  finds  corroboration  in  the  case  of  Peter,  who  was 
re'icased  from  prison  by  an  angel,  and  of  the  Davenport  Bro- 
thers, who  were  helped  to  make  their  escape,  by  angel  power, 
from  prison  walls,  in  Oswego,  N.  Y.,  thrust  therein  at  the 
instigation  of  the  church. 

Augustine,  a  famous  Latin  Church  Father,  living  in  the 
4th  century,  gives  some  very  beautiful  expressions  of  joy 
respecting  angel  guardians : 

"  They  watch  over  and  guard  us  with  great  care  and  diligence  in  all 
places,  and  at  all  hours  assisting,  providing  for  our  necessities  with 
solicitude ;  they  intervene  betwixt  us  and  Thee,  0  Lord,  conveying  te 
Thee  our  sighs  and  groans,  and  bringing  down  to  us  the  dearest  bless- 
ings of  Thy  grace.  They  walk  with  us  in  all  our  ways;  they  go  in 
and  out  with  us.  attentively  observing  how  we  converse  with  piety  in 
the  midst  of  a  perverse  generation ;  with  what  ardor  we  seek  Thy 
kingdom  and  its  justice,  and  with  what  fear  and  awe  we  serve  Thee. 
They  assist  us  in  our  labors ;  they  protect  us  in  our  rest ;  they  encour- 
age us  in  battle;  they  crown  us  in  victories;  they  rejoice  in  us  when 
we  rejoice  in  Thee ;  and  they  compassionately  attend  us  when  we  suffer 
or  are  afflicted  for  Thee.  G-reat  is  their  care  of  us,  and  great  is  the 
effect  of  their  charity  for  us.'' 

Julian,  Emperor  of  Rome,  nephew  of  Constantine,  famous 
in  history  for  his  effort  to  re-establish  the  shrines  of  oriental 
worship,  and  stigmatized  "Apostate,"  because,  being  a 
Christian,  he  patronized  the  !N"eo-Platonic  Philosophy.  When 
a  boy,  he  was  strongly  charmed  by  the  sunlight,  and  consid- 
ered it  an  unconscious  longing  after  the  God  with  whom  he 
was  related.  The  sun  was  to  him  a  beautiful  symbol  of  the 
God  of  the  universe.     Accordingly,  "  the  private  chapel  in 


142  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

his  palace  was  consecrated  to  the  sun  ;  but  his  gardens  were 
filled  with  altars  and  statues  of  the  gods  and  angels."  He 
maintained  that  there  were  messengers  between  God  and 
men,  and  some'.imes,  for  special  purposes,  resided  in  earthly 
temples — haunted  houses.  No  wonder  the  church  called 
him  '^  Ajyosfate!  " 

''  When  Julian  and  his  brother  Gallus  were  induced  to  undertake 
the  labor  of  erecting  a  chapel  over  the  tomb  of  the  martyr  Mammas, 
the  work  went  on  rapidly  under  the  hands  of  Gallus,  but  the  stones 
which  Julian  laid  were  constantly  overthrown  as  by  some  invisible 
agency.  Gregory  of  Naziangen  says  that  he  had  this  from  eye 
witnesses ;  and  he  seenas  to  regard  it  as  a  prophetic  miracle." 

The  Greek  Church  of  Russia,  receiving  her  apostolic  hier- 
archy and  priesthood  frcm  Greece,  has  carefully  maintained 
the  integrity  of  the  primitive  Church  with  less  innovations, 
doubtless,  than  the  Catholic,  and  is,  therefore,  more  authori- 
tative in  respect  to  what  the  Apostolic  Fathers  taught.  The 
doctrine  of  ministering  spirits,  working  miracles  through 
their  patron  saints,  is  plainly  set  forth  in  their  religious 
histories. 

M.  MouRAViEFF,  a  church  historian,  tells  us  that  "  his  or  hei 
*  angel'  is  the  customary  phrase  in  Russia  for  the  patron 
saint  after  whom  any  one  is  named;  but  that  they  also 
believe  in  guardian  angels  appointed  to  each  baptized  person. 
The  church  counts,  as  its  chief  guardians  and  intercessors,  a 
considerable  number  of  saints.  The  Russian  Church  believes 
firmly  in  ^  the  doctrines  of  the  holy  Icons  (pictures  of  saints 
and  the  Virgin),  in  relics,  the  sign  of  the  venerable  cross,  of 
tradition,  of  the  mystery  of  the  most  pure  blood  and  body 
of  Christ,  of  the  invocation  of  saints  and  angels,  of  the  state 
of  souls  after  death,  and  of  praj^ers  for  the  departed.'  " 

Howitt,  in  his  *'  History  of  the  Supernatural,"  adverts  to 
the  fact,  that  "  in  the  time  of  Peter  the  Great,  the  Anglican 
Church  made  application  to  be  admitted  to  unity  with  the 
(."Ecumenical  Church,  and  desired  the  Russian  patriarch  to 


CHURCHAL    SPIRITUALISM  —  CHURCHIANIC.  14S 

transmit  their  prayer  to  Constantinople ;  but  the  Russian 
prelates,  having  consulted,  declined,  because  the  Anglican 
Churcn  had  heretically  renounced  the  traditions  of  the 
Fathers,  the  invocations  of  saints,  and  the  reverencing  of 
Icons — sacred  pictures." 

CT.  Bernard,  a  healing  and  most  benevolent  priest,  thu3 
all-:  des  to  the  divine  care  over  us  : 

"  We  owe  to  our  guardian  angels  great  reverence,  devo- 
tion and  confidence.  Penetrated  with  awe,  walk  always  with 
ciicumspection,  remembering  the  presence  of  angels,  to  whom 
you  are  given  in  charge,  in  all  your  ways.  In  every  apart- 
ment, in  every  closet,  in  every  corner,  pay  respect  to  your 
angel.  Dare  you  do  before  him  what  you  dare  not  commit 
if  I  saw  you  ?"  ******** 

"  Consider  with  how  great  respect,  awe,  and  modesty  we 
'.ught  to  behave  in  the  sight  of  the  angels,  lest  w^e  ofiend 
their  eyes,  and  render  ourselves  unworthy  of  their  company. 
Woe  to  us  if  they  who  could  chase  away  our  enemy,  be 
'^i?ended  by  our  negligence,  and  deprive  us  of  their  visits.'^ 

Gregory  VII.,  (Hildebrand)  of  the  11th  century,  was  a 
uoted  thaumaturgist  or  seer.  When  Rodolph  marched 
against  Henry  lY.,  this  pope  was  so  certain  of  success  that  he 
ventured  to  prophesy,  both  in  speech  and  writing,  that  his 
enemy  would  be  conquered  and  slain  in  battle,  and  would 
transpire  before  St.  Peter's  day,  which  prophecy  was  literally 
fulfilled. 

IvOGER  Bacon,  of  the  12th  century,  a  Franciscan  Friar,  the 
accredited  inventor  of  the  telescope,  and  a  profound  scholar, 
who  much  disturbed  the  church  by  his  seership  and  science, 
'.,.'■  der  the  controlling  intelligences  of  the  spirit-world,  pene- 
tiated  into  the  mysteries  of  life,  and,  piercing  the  cloudy 
8un-r.  ists  of  intervening  ages,  seized  upon  the  occult  forces 
that  bowed  as  servants  to  his  beck  and  adapted  them  by 
inventi  )n  to  practical  uses. 


144  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

A  profouud  study  of  magic  with  the  natural  sciences,  made 
Qim  liberal  and  progressive.  The  clerg}'  prohibited  his 
lectures,  and  confined  the  circulation  of  his  writings  to  the 
walls  of  the  convent.  Finally  a  council  of  Sanfranciscans 
condemned  his  books  and  sent  him  to  prison.  He  was 
specially  gifted  with  the  power  to  discern  future  events,  being 
highly  mediumistic.  Some  of  his  remarkable  prophecies, 
uttered  six  hundred  years  ago,  relating  to  modern  invendoiis, 
were  strikingly  practical,  as  the  following  testifies : 

"  Bridges,  unsupported  by  arches,  will  be  made  to  span  tbe  f;amiD,,___ 
current.  Man  shall  descend  to  the  bottom  of  the  ocean,  safciy  brea til- 
ing, and  treading  with  firm  step  on  the  golden  sands,  never  brighten'^i 
by  the  light  of  day.  Call  but  the  sacred  powers  of  Sol  and  Luna  into 
action,  and  behold  a  single  steersman  sitting  at  the  helm,  guiding  the 
vessel  which  divides  the  waves  with  greater  rapidity  than  if  sr?  tai 
been  propelled  by  a  crew  of  marines  toiling  at  the  oars ;  and  the  ioa  led 
chariot  no  longer  encumbered  by  the  panting  steeds,  shall  dart  en  its 
course  with  resistless  force  and  rapidity.  Let  the  siniple  elements  do 
the  labor;  bind  the  eternal  forces  and  3'^oke  them  to  the  same  plow." 

The    excellent   writer,   Prof.  Brittan,   says    that    *^  thesv 
prophecies   of  Bacon  embrace  the   Suspension  Bridge,  tli« 
Diving  Bell,  Steam  Navigation,  the  Railroad,  and  the  Stean 
Plow,  in  the  same  chain  of  events,  all  of  which  are  anion  _• 
the  accomplished  realities  of-day." 

Infinite  Spirit  is  infinite  causation  ;  finite  spirit  in  man  is 
finite  causation.  Just  so  far  as  this  finite  causation  comes 
into  relation  with  causes  outside  and  independent  of  himself, 
is  he  able  to  read  the  future.  Exalted  spirits  standing  upon 
the  plane  of  causes,  and,  seeing  with  unsealed  vision  certain 
operative  forces,  are  enabled  to  determine  the  legitimate 
effects  thence  derived.  Prophecy,  therefore,  is  just  as  nat- 
ural as  cause  and  effect.  Angelo,  spirits,  men,  possess  tin 
power  of  prevision  just  in  the  ratio  of  exaltation  in  wisdom 

Peter  d'Apono,  1250  A.  D.,  an  eminent  philosopher,  ma'/  ^ 
ematician  and  astrologer,  is  said  to  have  been  possessed  bj 
seven  spirits,  from  whom  he  received   all  information  be 


CHURCHAL    SPIRITUALISM  —  CHURCHIANIC.  145 

desired  relating  to  tlie  liberal  arts  and  sciences.  Tried  in 
ecclesiastic  council  for  practicing  magic,  he  died  before  his 
inquisitors,  who,  to  glut  their  insatiable  churchal  malignancy, 
dug  up  his  bones  and  publicly  burned  them ! 

Bishop  Grossetete,  of  the  13th  century,  a  man  of  most 
transcendent  intellect  and  superior  acquirements,  was  en- 
dowed with  spiritual  gifts.  The  poet,  Gower,  informs  us 
that  he  constructed  a  head  of  brass  in  such  a  manner  that 
mediumistically  it  answered  philosophical  questions  and 
foretold  future  events. 

"  Nicolas,  of  Basle,  and  his  friends  predicted  the  death  of  Gregory 
XL,  which  took  place  at  the  time  foretold — namely,  in  the  fourth  week 
in  Lent,  1378.  They  foresaw  also  the  grand  schism  in  the  Popedom, 
which  commenced  in  the  following  year.  So  deeply  was  Nicolas  con- 
cerned for  the  shameful  corruptions  of  the  church  and  of  the  papal 
court,  that  in  his  seventieth  year,  in  the  year  1376,  taking  a  trusty 
'  Friend  of  Grod '  with  him,  he  went  to  Rome  ',  and,  in  a  personal 
interview  with  Gregory,  warned  him  of  the  troubles  coming,  and  of  his 
own  death,  if  he  did  not  commence  a  real  and  sweeping  reform.  The 
pope  received  this  mission  kindly  but  did  not  profit  by  it,  and  died  as 
they  had  foreshown.  Many  wonderful  spiritual  phenomena  and  reve- 
lations are  related  as  attending  the  meeting  of  these  Friends  of  God," 
— a  sect  of  the  4th  century,  identified  with  the  Catholic  Church,  that 
sought  to  purify  it  of  its  gross  iniquities  through  a  more  spiritual 
and  angelic  life. 

Martin  Luther,  though  careful  to  reject  the  doctrine  of 
miracles  and  the  continuation  of  the  spiritual  gifts — the  fatal 
error  of  Protestantism — was  forced  to  admit  in  his  day  of 
terrible  conflict  with  the  Mother  Church,  that  ^'  angels  were 
watching  and  protecting,"  and  "  *  all  up  in  arms,  putting  on 
their  armor,  and  girding  their  swords  about  them ' ;  but  he 
had  so  bitterly  ridiculed  and  so  heartily  abused  the  Catholics 
for  their  manufactured  miracles,  that  he  was  now  afraid 
to  have  the  power  of  working  true  ones,  lest  they  should 
retort." 

In  this  matter  we  discover  in  Luther,  not  only  a  want  of 
candor,  but  also  of  courage — for  according  to  his  own  expe- 
rience and  confession  in  his  Table  Talk  and  otherwise,  he  was 
10 


146  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

convicted  of  direct  spiritual  inspiration  and  the  probable 
visitation  of  spirits  and  angels.  This  apparent  cowardice 
and  most  saddening  mistake  in  the  Reformation,  constitute 
the  tare  in  the  church-field,  which  has  increased  till  all  the 
wheat  is  smutty.  This  reaction  from  the  abuse  of  spiritual 
gifts  in  the  Catholic  Church,  has  been  all  along  a  killing  frost, 
destroying  every  beautiful  flower  of  Paradise.  Reader ! 
have  you  thought  of  the  painful  fact,  that  all  the  Protestant 
Churches  date  their  spiritual  decay  back  three  hundred  years 
to  this  fatal  error  of  the  fathers  of  the  Reformation,  whilst 
the  Mother  Church,  assailed  on  every  side,  a  thousand  times 
menaced  with  annihilation,  lives  on  amid  Protestant  decay, 
fresh  and  green  in  her  soul — beautiful  vines  climbing  walls 
in  ruin  ? 

The  Catholic  Church  never  lost  its  cynosure  star — the 
probable  ministry  of  angels.  As  ever  her  devotees  have 
said,  *'  We  believe  in  communion  with  the  saints,"  those 
angels  have  felt  the  prayer  and  kept  the  estate  secure  from 
blast.  The  Catholics,  clinging  with  loving  tenacity  to  the 
beautiful  belief  of  "  communion  with  the  saints,"  have,  from 
time  immemorial,  preserved  it  in  imposing  anniversary. 
The  second  of  October  is  the  Feast  of  Angel  Guardians,  in 
commemoration,  as  Alban  Butler  says,  of"  a  communication 
of  spiritual  commerce  between  us  on  earth  and  his  holy 
angels,  whose  companions  we  hope  one  day  to  be  in  the 
kingdom  of  his  glory." 

But  Luther's  vacuum  was  filled  with  his  "  roaring  devil !" 
that  haunted  him  in  all  his  travels  and  labors,  as  a  "  familiar 
spirit."  The  devil  supped  with  him,  slept  with  him,  watcher^ 
with  him,  conversed  with  him,  spoke  to  him  in  all  calamities 
and  misfortunes.  On  one  occasion,  when  this  spirit  inter- 
fered with  his  translation,  perhaps  only  for  a  playful  taunt, 
he  threw  his  inkstand  at  him.  This  iconoclast  had  a  great 
deal  of  trouble  with  this  spirit,  who  evidently  delighted  in 
a  frolic  to  keep  up  a  healthful  condition  with  his  medium. 
He  little  realized  that  his  devil,  attracted  to  his  sphere  of 
life,  was  a  power  that  intensified  his  will  and  strengthened 


CHURCHAL    SPIRITUALISM  —  CHURCHIANIC.  147 

him  in  his  reformatory  work.  Give  thy  devil  his  due,  0 
Luther!  But  these  days  we  have  learned  not  to  call  these 
health-giving,  rough  and  playful  spirits,  devils,  but  fellow- 
laborers. 

Poor  Luther,  so  protestant  as  to  drive  away  the  higher 
angels,  so  iconoclastic  as  to  attract  destructive  spirits  to  be 
Ijis  companions !  We  do  not  wonder  that  all  his  church 
children  have  been  obsessed,  and  do  to  this  day  see  only  a 
*' devil"  in  Spiritualism — the  angel  of  God  returned  to 
rescue  Protestantism  from  death.  "  As  a  man  thinketh  so 
is  he."  Devilish  conditions  clothe  all  spirits  with  demoniac 
attributes.  Look  within,  0  dying  Church !  and  behold 
thyself  entombed  with  the  real  Gadarene! — blank  skepti- 
cism— wintry  atheism,  *'  legion  "  of  doubts  and  bigotries ! 

Philip  Melancxhon,  more  spiritual  in  organization  than 
Luther,  had  a  more  equably  balanced  faith  in  the  ministry  of 
spirits,  and  relates  several  instances  of  such  interposition  in 
times  of  peril.  He  tells  us,  that  he  had  seen  spectres^ 
(spirits)  and  that  he  knew  many  men,  worthy  of  credit,  who 
not  only  had  seen,  but  had  likewise  discoursed  with  them." 

Leckendoye,  on  the  authority  of  Solomon  Glasse,  states 
that  Melancthon  was  recalled  from  death  by  Luther's  prayers, 
positively  indicating  his  healing  power  under  the  influence 
of  his  attending  spirits  : 

"  Luther  arrived,  and  found  Philip  about  to  give  up  the 
ghost.  His  eyes  were  set,  his  understanding  was  almost 
gone,  his  speech  had  failed,  and  also  his  hearing;  his  face 
had  fallen ;  he  knew  no  one,  and  had  ceased  to  take  either 
solids  or  liquids.  At  this  spectacle  Luther  is  filled  with  the 
utmost  consternation — turning  away  towards  the  window,  he 
called  most  devoutly  upon  God.  After  this,  taking  the  hand 
of  Philip,  and  well  knowing  what  was  the  anxiety  of  his 
heart  and  conscience,  he  said,  ^  Be  of  good  courage,  Philip; 
thou  shalt  not  die.'  While  he  utters  these  things,  Philip 
begins,  as  it  were,  to  revive  and  to  breathe,  and  gradually 


148  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

recovering  his  strength,  is  at  last  restored  to  health.  Mel- 
ancthon,  writing  to  a  friend,  said,  "  I  should  have  been  a 
dead  man,  had  I  not  been  recalled  from  death  by  the  .oming 
of  Luther." 

John  Calvin,  "  the  iron-clad,"  the  actual  murderer  of 
Servetus  for  heresy,  the  father  of  "election,  reprobation  and 
Infant  Damnation,"  and  of  a  church  still  as  rigid  as  his  stern 
self — a  man  whose  sinewy  temperament  would  not  originate 
or  indulge  in  spiritual  fancies,  as  we  might  naturally  suppose, 
if  he  believed  at  all  in  spirits,  accepted  the  doctrine  of  the 
so-called  "  supernatural"  under  the  "  agency  of  Satan  ! "  He 
however  claimed  to  have  a  genuine  spirit  of  prophecy,  and 
to  be  clairaudient,  as  Beza  shows  in  his  biography  of  Calvin. 

Columbus,  toiling  seventeen  years  under  the  lofty  ideal  of 
faith,  at  length  procured  the  ships  that  wooed  the  shores  of 
the  western  world.  He  was  pronounced  a  "  visionary  and 
fanatic."  When  wrestling  with  sorest  difficulties,  he  heard 
an  unknown  voice  whispering  in  his  ear,  "  God  will  cause 
thy  name  to  be  wonderfully  resounded  through  the  earth, 
and  give  thee  the  keys  to  the  gates  of  the  ocean  which  are 
closed  with  strong  chains." 

Cicero  gave  this  remarkable  prediction :  "  Across  the 
ocean,  and  after  many  ages,  an  extensive  and  rich  country 
will  be  discovered,  and  in  it  will  arise  a  hero,  who,  by  his 
counsel  and  arms,  shall  deliver  his  country  from  the  slavery 
b}^  which  she  was  oppressed.  This  he  shall  do,  under 
favorable  auspices ;  and  oh  !  how  much  more  admirable 
will  he  be  than  our  Brutus  and  Camillus  !  "  This  prediction 
was  known  to  Accius,  and  was  embellished  in  poetry.  Thus 
prophets  have  been  honored  and  prophecies  preserved  in  all 
ages  of  the  world. 

The  Waldenses  of  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries, 
resolved  to  be  pure  and  clear  of  Catholic  idolatry,  were 
pursued  by  their  enemies  with  the  most  maligr.aut  perse- 
cutions to  exterminate  them  from  the  earth.     Among  the 


CHURCHAL    SPIRITUALISM  —  CHURCIIIANIC.  149 

fastnesses  of  the  riedmontese  Alps,  they  defended  themselves 
under  the  miraculous  intervention  of  the  spirits,  astonishing 
as  that  of  Israel  under  the  leadership  of  Joshua,  guided  by 
the  reputed  Jehovah  and  his  retinue  of  warlike  spirits. 
Leger,  their  historian,  informs  us  that  on  one  occasion  they 
were  '*  carried  off  in  great  numbers  from  their  harvest  "fields, 
and  cast  into  different  prisons ;  but  their  enemies,  to  their 
unbounded  astonishment,  soon  found  them  all  at  liberty 
again,  equally  to  the  amazement  of  the  captives  themselves, 
who  knew  nothing  of  the  arrest  of  their  fellows  in  different 
places  at  the  same  time,  and  were  set  free  again  '  miracu- 
lously,' and  in  a  wonderful  manner." 

Agrippa,  fifteenth  century,  remarkable  for  his  knowledge 
of  the  languages,  and  vast  range  of  scholarship,  possessed 
rare  spiritual  powers,  which  he  delighted  to  exhibit  in 
European  courts.  When  at  the  court  of  John  George, 
Elector  of  Saxony,  with  Erasmus  and  others,  eminent  in  the 
republic  of  letters,  he  was  solicited  to  call  up  the  spirit  of 
Tully.  Arranging  the  audience,  Tully  appeared  upon  the 
rostrum  and  reiterated  his  oration  for  Roscius  "  with  such 
astonishing  animation,  exaltation  of  spirit,  and  soul-stirring 
gestures,  that  all  present,  like  the  Romans  of  old,  were  ready 
to  pronounce  his  client  innocent  of  every  charge  brought 
against  him." 

By  means  of  the  vital  magnetic  effluences  from  the  medi- 
umistic  Agrippa,  the  spirits  uniting  their  own  spheral  emana- 
tions, Tully  was  enabled  to  materialize  himself  and  appear 
upon  the  rostrum  en  persona,  just  as  the  angels,  materializing 
themselves,  rolled  away  the  stone  from  the  sepulchre  of 
Jesus,  and  as  they  now  exhibit  spirit  hands  in  visible  form. 

BoDiN,  a  celebrated  writer  on  jurisprudence,  informs  us 
of  a  person  who  used  to  pray  heartily  to  God,  morning  and 
evening,  that  He  would  send  him  "  a  good  angel  to  guide  him 
in  all  I  is  actions ;  "  and,  in  answer  to  his  soul's  entreaty,  a 
spirit  at  last  responded;  at  first  in  dreams  and  visions  to  correct 
certain  )ad  habits;  afterwards,  warning  him  of  dangers,  aid 


150  DOCTRINES    OP   SPIRITUALISTS. 

Bhowing  him  how  to  overcome  difficulties.  When  hig  medi 
umship  was  better  developed,  he  heard  the  voice  of  his  angel, 
saying,  "  I  will  save  thy  soul.  It  is  I  that  appeared  to  thee 
before."  This  spirit  would  knock  at  his  door  —  spirit 
rappings  —  direct  him  in  his  devotions — guard  him  in  his 
sickness — prevent  his  reading  anything  morally  injurious — 
warn  him  of  evil  by  touching  his  left  ear,  of  good  results  by 
touching  his  right  ear — map  out  for  him  the  true  path  of  life 
by  signs,  visions  and  impressions. 

Trithemius,  Abbot  of  Spanheim,  flourishing  in  the  fifteenth 
century,  author  of  many  valuable  works,  and  a  man  of  great 
learning  and  dignity,  gifted  with  second  sight,  saw  his 
departed  wife  and  recognized  her.  His  biographer  states 
that  after  long  pondering  upon  "  secrets  unknown  to  men," 
until  ashamed  of  his  seeming  folly  to  discover  "  impossi' 
bilities,"  he  was  one  night  visited  by  a  spirit  who  assured  him 
that  his  deep  thoughts  were  inspired.  The  whole  mystery  was 
explained,  and  the  result  was  the  secret  instrument  entitled 
Stenographia,  w^hich,  doubtless,  was  nothing  more  nor  less 
than  a  scientific  revelation  of  mental  telegraphing,  kindred 
with  spirit  communications. 

In  his  work  on  "  Secret  Things  and  Secret  Spirits,"  he 
inculcates  the  old  Hindoo  virtue  of  self-denial :  "It  is  fit 
that  w^e  who  endeavor  to  rise  to  an  elevation  so  sublime, 
should  study  first  to  leave  behind  carnal  afl:ections,  the  frailty 
of  the  senses,  and  the  passions  that  belong  thereto." 

Tasso,  the  first  of  Italian  poets,  was  a  genius  beyond  the 
capacity  of  his  age,  and  so  brilliant  that  popes,  cardinals, 
princes,  and  the  court  of  Ferrara,  where  he  resided,  esteemed 
themselves  honored  with  his  presence.  He  ranks  among  the 
most  distinguished  Spiritualists  of  the  ages.  Daily  convers- 
ing with  inspiring  spirits,  his  poems  abound  with  beautiful 
picturings  of  angels  and  loving  demons,  who  not  only  peopled 
the  realm  of  his  imagination,  but  constituted  the  real  of  his 
life. 

"  He  lived  the  songs  he  sung." 


CHURCHAL    SPIRITUALISM  —  CHURCHIANIC.  151 

The  plodding  inductionists  of  his  time  pronounced  him 
"mad" — mad? — mad  as  Socrates — mad  as  Jesus — mad  as 
John  on  Patmos — mad  as  Spiritualists  now  are  mad.  Owing 
to  his  spiritual  exaltation  and  magical  power  of  comiL  ining 
with  spirits,  despite  his  finely  molded  form  and  character, 
and  the  felicity  of  his  poetic  thought,  he  was  contemptuously 
persecuted  by  the  petty  Duke  of  Ferrara,  one  of  the  minions 
of  the  church,  and  thrust  into  a  cold  prison  at  Santa  Anna. 
Here  he  was  visited  by  spirits,  one  of  whom  he  calls  Folletto. 

Strange  noises  and  commotions  were  produced  by  this 
influence,  when  his  mind  was  thus  wrought  up  to  deep 
feeling  and  anguish  on  account  of  bigoted,  envious  sectarists; 
"  his  books  were  flung  down  from  the  shelves,  a  loaf  was 
snatched  out  of  his  own  hands,  and  a  plate  of  fruit,  which  he 
was  offering  to  a  Polish  youth.  '  God  knows,'  he  says,  '  that 
I  am  neither  a  magician  nor  a  Lutheran,  that  I  never  read 
heretical  books,  nor  those  which  treat  of  necromancy,  nor 
any  prohibited  art;  yet  I  can  neither  defend  myself  from 
thievish  men  when  I  am  absent,  nor  demons  when  I  am 
present.'"  To  soothe  his  sufferings,  he  had  a  vision  of  the 
Virgin  Mary.  Through  spirit  power  he  was  healed,  and  an 
appreciation  of  the  heavenly  intervention,  he  embodied  it  in 
sweet  song. 

The  eminent  author,  William  Howitt,  writing  of  him, 
says: 

*'  Whether  grave  or  gay,  this  spirit  often  came  to  him,  and  he  often 
held  long  discourses  with  it.  Manso  endeavored  to  persuade  him  that 
it  was  a  fancy  ;  but  Tasso  maintained  that  it  was  as  real  as  themselves, 
a  Christian  spirit,  and  which  Manso  admits  gave  him  great  comfort  and 
consolation.  Tasso,  to  convince  Manso  of  the  reality  of  this  spirit, 
begged  him  to  be  present  at  an  interview.  Manso  says  that  he  saw 
Tasso  address  himself  to  some  invisible  object,  listen  in  return,  and 
then  reply  to  what  it  appeared  to  have  said.  He  says  that  the  dis- 
courses of  Tasso  '  were  so  lofty  and  marvelous,  both  by  the  sublimity 
of  their  topics  and  a  certain  unwonted  manner  of  talking,  that,  exalted 
above  myself  into  a  certain  kind  of  ecstacy,  I  did  not  dare  to  interrupt 
them.^  Tasso  was  disappointed,  however,  that  3Ianso  did  not  see  or 
hear  the  spirit — which  he  ought  not  to  have  been  after  what  he  himself 
telk  us,  that  to  see  spirits  the  human  eye  must  be  purified,  or  the  spirits 
must  array  themselves  in  matter.     This  is  the  present  acknowledi;Gd 


152  DOCTRINES    OF   SPIRITUALISTS. 

law  in  such  cases  of  apparitions.  They  who  see  them  must  be  medi- 
ums— that  is,  have  their  spiritual  eyes  open — or  the  spirits  must 
envelop  themselves  in  matter  obvious  to  the  outer  eye.  Tasso  did  not 
recollect  that  Manso  might  not  be  in  the  clairvoyant  condition  in  which 
he  himself  was  ;  and  Manso,  wholly  ignorant  of  these  psychological  laws, 
could  only  suppose  Tasso  dealing  with  a  subjective  idea.  Yet  Manso 
evidently  felt  the  presence  of  the  spirit,  for  he  was  raised  by  it  '  into  a 
Ivind  of  ecstacy/  and  he  confesses  that  Tasso's  spiritual  interviews 
'  were  more  likely  to  affect  his  own  mind  than  that  he  should  dissipate 
Tasso's  true  or  imaginary  opinion.' " 

The  English  Church,  founded  by  the  voluptuous  Henrj 
Vin.,  contains  in  its  homilies  sundry  statements  of  the  gifts 
of  the  Spirits,  of  which  the  following  is  a  sample  : 

"  The  Holy  Ghost  doth  always  declare  Himself,  by  His  fruitful  and 
gracious  gifts — namely,  by  the  word  of  wisdom,  by  the  word  of 
knowledge,  which  is  the  understanding  of  the  Scriptures ;  by  faith  in 
doing  of  miracles,  by  healing  them  that  are  diseased,  by  prophecy, 
which  is  the  distribution  of  God's  mysteries;  by  discerning  of  spirits, 
div^ersities  of  tongues,  and  so  forth.  All  which  gifts,  as  they  proceed 
Prom  one  Spirit,  and  are  severally  given  to  man  according  to  the 
measurable  distribution  of  the  Holy  Ghost ;  even  so  do  they  bring 
men,  and  not  without  good  cause,  into  a  wonderful  admiration  of  God's 
])Ower." 

But  this  only  saving  element,  casually  infused  into  the 
creed  from  its  scriptural  pledges  of  allegiance  to  the  "Word 
of  God,"  was  stultified  by  the  transmissible,  cancerous  poison 
of  Lutheran  origin — *' the  non-necessity  of  further  miracles." 
A  writer,  understanding  its  unspiritual  condition,  its  super- 
ficial religion,  appropriately  calls  it  the  "  Anglican  drying- 
house,  whose  looks  and  words  are  of  the  purest  dry-as-dust 
order,  caintes-mortuum  men — of  the  earth,  earthy." 

All  religion  turns  to  brass  to  rust  in  sepultures,  when  its 
devotees  deny  the  ministry  of  angels.  It  degenerates  with 
fashion,  grows  lecherous  with  lust,  sinks  into  an  ecclesiastic 
night-mare,  a  kind  of  churchal  delirium  tremens,  that  sees 
only  devils  in  all  spiritual  phenomena,  come  to  raise  ""the 
dead  in  Irespasses  and  sins."  This  is  the  trouble — the 
dead-lock  of  every  church  from  the  Lutheran  down  to  the 
[Jniversalii ': ! 


CHURCHAL    SPIRITUALISM  —  CHURCHIANIC.  163 

Archbishop  Cranmer,  who  stood  at  the  foundation  of  the 
English  Reform  Church,  did  not  care  to  have  any  warning 
sunlight  from  spirits,  the  bare  "Word"  of  a  book  was 
enough ;  so  all  the  rest  have  thought  until  *'  they  are  wells 
without  water."  He  says,  when  a  spirit  comes  to  you  saying, 
"  I  am  the  soul  of  such  a  one,  give  no  heed,  for  it  is  the 
devil ! "  He  maintains  with  the  general  body  of  starved 
pseudo-Bible  sticklers,  that  God  has  shut  up  the  way, 
*'  neither  doth  he  suffer  any  of  the  dead  to  come  again  hither, 
to  tell  what  is  done  there,  lest  by  that  means  he  should  bring 
in  all  his  heresies  and  subtleties." 

But  even  Cranmer  found  it  hard  to  smother  the  burning 
fires  within.  Despite  the  Lutheran  laboratory  that  trans- 
formed all  angels  into  devils,  he  too  had  his  private  convic- 
tions and  spiritual  evidences  of  an  order  of  spirits  raised 
above  the  dominion  of  his  hell.  In  1532,  being  in  a  contem- 
plative negative  condition,  a  spirit  showed  him  a  great  blaz- 
ing star.  Writing  to  King  Henry  from  Austria,  he  says : 
**  God  only  knows  what  these  tokens  foretell,  for  they  do  not 
lightly  appear,  but  against  some  great  mutation." 

Bishop  Latimer,  cotemporary  of  Cranmer,  honest  and 
warm  hearted,  fell  into  the  same  "  Slough  of  Despond,"  and 
covered  himself  with  exsiccating  mud — the  church  method 
of  embalming  clerical  mummies.  We  quote  from  his 
biographer : 

"  And  peradventure  some  one  will  say,  '  How  happeneth  it  that 
there  are  no  miracles  done  in  these  days,  by  such  as  are  preachers  of 
the  word  of  God?'  I  answer,  the  word  of  God  is  already  confirmed 
by  miracles :  partly  by  Christ  himself,  and  partly  by  the  apostles  and 
saints.  Therefore,  they  which  now  preach  the  same  word  need  no 
miracles  for  the  confirmation  thereof;  for  the  same  is  sufficiently 
confirmed  already." 

But  Latimer  believed  in  "  substitution  " — a  devil  for  an 
angel — and,  sandwiching  him  in,  gave  his  "  satanic  majesty  " 
the  credit  of  working  the  miracles  of  his  day !  Well,  the 
church  has  always  been  consistent  with  its  own  plane.  But 
even    Latimer   prophesied   correctly   on    certain    occasions. 


154  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

His  biographer  says,  ^'if  ever  England  had  i.  prophet,  he 
might  seem  to  be  one."  He  prophesied  his  own  death  by 
martyrdom.  So  it  is;  men  may  as  well  try  to  bottle  up  the 
sunlight  as  the  heavenly  effulgence  of  angel  ministries. 
When  men  attribute  the  spiritual  phenomena  to  evil  spirits, 
or  the  devil,  what  do  they  on  their  angle  of  religious 
incidence,  but  clinch  the  truth  of  spirit  communication? 

Judicious  Hooker,  also  of  the  English  Church,  more  judi- 
cious than  his  famous  compeers,  more  Platonic  and  Grecianly 
colossal  in  thought,  jumped  over  the  Lutheran  "Slough" 
at  one  bound.  A  moral  lion  he  whose  mane  the  spirits 
delighted  to  magnetize.     He  says  : 

"  The  angels  resembled  God  in  their  unweariable  and  even  insatiable 
longing  to  do  all  manner  of  good  to  men  by  all  means."  "  The  pay- 
nims,"  he  says,  "  had  arrived  at  the  same  knowledge  of  the  nature  of 
angels ;  Orpheus  confessing  that  the  fiery  throne  of  God  is  surrounded 
by  those  most  industrious  angels,  careful  how  all  things  are  performed 
amongst  men." 

"  Angels,"  says  Hooker  in  another  place,  "  are  spirits  immaterial  and 
intellectual.  In  number  and  order  they  are  large,  mighty  and  royal 
armies,  desiring  good  unto  all  the  creatures  of  God,  but  especially  unto 
the  children  of  men ;  in  the  countenance  of  whose  nature,  looking 
downward,  they  behold  themselves  beneath  themselves;  besides  which, 
the  angels  have  with  us  that  communion  which  the  Apostle  to  the 
Hebrews  noteth,  and  in  regard  whereof  they  disdain  not  to  profess 
themselves  our  fellow-servants.  And  from  hence  there  springeth  up 
another  law,  which  bindeth  them  to  works  of  ministerial  employment." 

Bishop  Hall,  of  Norwich,  the  revered  poet,  had  the  moral 
hardihood,  like  Hooker,  to  vindicate  the  use  of  spiritual  gifts 
in  the  Protestant  Church.  He  is  very  explicit  in  his  decla- 
rations of  spirit  communication  in  tangible  forms.  His  wife 
was  pointed  out  to  him  by  an  *'  angel  of  God."  His  mother, 
being  prostrated  wntli  sickness,  had  a  vision,  in  which  a 
physician  ap)peared  and  actually  healed  her  ;  this  he  confirms. 
At  one  time,  when  journeying  to  the  Netherlands,  an  angel 
delivered  him  from  the  hands  of  robbers — "  the  mauifeet 
hand  of  God." 


CHURCHAL    SPIRITUALISM  —  CHURCHIANIC.  -55 

He  wrote  a  valuable  work  on  "  The  Invisible  World,"  in 
which  he  maintained  that  "  the  spiritual  gifts  "  are  perpetual. 
He  often  invoked  the  aid  of  guardian  spirits.  He  felt  their 
continued  presence,  and  so  was  impressed  with  high  purposes 
to  "  walk  carefully  but  confidently."  In  his  spiritual  treatise 
he  says : 

"  So  sure  as  we  see  men,  so  sure  we  are  that  holy  men  have  seen 
angels.  Have  we  been  raised  up,"  he  continues,  "  from  deadly  sickness, 
when  all  natural  helps  have  given  us  up  ?  God's  angels  have  been  our 
secret  physicians.  Have  we  had  intuitive  intimations  of  the  death  of 
absent  friends,  which  no  human  intelligence  had  bidden  us  to  suspect, 
who  but  our  angels  have  wrought  it  ?  Have  we  been  preserved  from 
mortal  danger,  which  we  could  not  tell  how  by  our  providence  to  have 
evaded,  our  invisible  guardians  have  done  it." 

Archbishop  Tillotson,  a  great  light  in  the  English  Church, 
confirmed  the  dark  as  well  as  light  side  of  Spiritualism — that 
both  evil  (undeveloped)  and  good  spirits  influence  mortals. 
Speaking  of  the  continual  intercourse  of  angels  with  men  for 
their  protection  and  advantage,  he  says  "  they  are  God's  great 
ministers  here  below." 

Bishop  Beveridge  supports  the  reality  of  "  ministering 
angels  and  ministering  devils,"  and  that  both  kinds  perform 
miracles  !  He  advocated  the  doctrine  of  seership  "  by  strong 
faith  spiritually;"  and  that  spirits  "assume  a  bodily  shape." 

Bishop  Butler  argued  the  credibility  of  "  miracular 
interpositions." 

Bishop  Sherlock,  agreeing  with  Tillotson  respecting  the 
ministry  of  both  evil  and  good  spirits,  discarded  the  doctrine 
of  a  stereotyped  revelation.  He  did  not  believe  in  thus  tying 
up  God's  hands.  He  re-asserts,  "  that  the  graces  of  the 
Spirit  are  the  arms  of  the  Christian,  with  which  he  is  to 
enter  the  lists  against  the  powers  of  darkness,  and  are  a 
certain  indication  to  us  that  God  intends  to  call  us  to  the 
proof  and  exercise  of  our  virtue ;  why  else  does  He  give  us 
this  additional  strength?" 


156  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

These  extracts  from  the  writings  of  the  Anglican  Fathers, 
are  sufiicent  to  indicate  that  that  very  fashionable  clmrch  has 
not  entirely  smothered  the  spiritual  light  under  its  silks  and 
cushions ;  but  it  is  also  apparent  that  said  church  has  been 
shy  of  it,  because  it  threatened  to  burn  up  their  formulary 
that  '*  miracles  are  needless."  Occupying  a  middle  ground 
between  Catholicity,  with  its  hosts  of  ministering  saints,  and 
extreme  Protestantism  that  has  sealed  God's  lips  within  the 
hds  of  the  Bible,  and  made  Jesus  the  monopolizer  of  all 
virtue,  they  were  quite  willing  to  have  personal  private 
seances  with  the  angels  as  do  other  good  members  of 
"respectable  churches"  to-da}",  but  were  generally  careful 
how  they  committed  themselves  before  the  world.  Light 
under  a  bushel  basket  is  better  than  no  light;  but  the  basket 
will  catch  fire  one  of  these  days,  set  by  such  spirits  as  Hooker, 
who  puts  the  torch  of  Freedom  into  the  hands  of  Colenso  and 
Tyng  and  Bishop  Clark. 

Paracelsus,  beholding  the  morning  light  near  Zurich, 
about  the  commencement  of  the  fifteenth  century,  was  dis- 
tinguished as  the  founder  of  the  modern  science  of  medicine, 
in  connection  with  the  remedial  agents  of  magnetism.  He 
understood  the  reciprocal  life-forces — being  mediumistic. 
Ennemoser,  a  great  admirer,  writes  of  him  thus : 

"  Paracelsus  was  the  first  who  compared  this  universal  reciprocity  of 
universal  life  in  all  creations,  in  the  great  as  in  the  small,  with  the 
magnet ;  so  that  the  word  magnetism,  in  the  sense  in  which  we  understand 
it,  originated  with  Paracelsus." 

He  was  considered  an  enthusiast  and  spiritual  adventurer, 
traveling  through  Germany,  Moravia,  Hungary,  and  other 
European  countries.  Believing  in  dreams,  forebodings,  pre- 
sentiments, prescience,  he  distinctly  taught  the  presence  and 
controlling  influence  of  spirits.  In  the  "  Strasburg  Edition," 
1603,  Paracelsus  writes  in  the  following  manner  of  the  power 
and  operation  of  the  Spirit : 

*'  It  is  possible  that  my  spirit,  without  the  help  of  the  body,  and 
through  a  fii^ry  will  alone,  can  wound  others.     It  is  also  possible  that  1 


CHURCIIAL    SPIRITUALISM  —  CHUR  IIIANIC.  157 

can  bring  the  spirit  of  my  adversary  into  an  image,  and  then  double 
him  up  to  his  displeasure.  Will  is  a  great  point  in  the  ait  of  medicine. 
Man  can  hang  disease  on  man  and  beast  throuuh  curses.  >}«*** 
Every  imagination  of  man  proceeds  from  the  center  of  his  being.  This 
is  the  sun  of  the  microcosm  ;  and  out  of  the  microcosm  flows  the  imag- 
ination into  the  great  world.  Thus  the  imagination  of  man  is  a  seed, 
which  becomes  materialized  into  the  outer.  *  *  *  *  ^jje  imao-- 
ination  of  another  may  be  able  to  kill  me.  Imagination  springing  out 
of  pleasure  and  desire,  usually  acts  in  concert  with  the  will-power; 
therefore,  envy  and  hatred  follow;  for  desire  is  followed  by  the  deed. 
No  armor  protects  against  magical  influences,  for  they  injure  the  inward 
spirit  of  life." 

Giordano  BrUxVO,  that  remarkable  Italian  inquirer,  daring, 
original  and  spiritualistic,  and  intimately  connected  with  the 
Paracelsus  school  of  thinkers,  was,  by  the  Roman  Inquisition , 
arrested  and  retained  in  prison  two  years  for  spiritual  heresy, 
and  thence  delivered  to  the  Secular  Masristrate  after  the 
usual  disgusting  formula — "  that  he  be  dealt  with  as  merci- 
fully as  possible,  and  punished  without  effusion  of  blood." 
Bruno  exclaimed — "  Your  sentence  strikes  more  terror  into 
your  own  hearts  than  mine  !  "  and  he  died  as  a  brave  man 
ought. 

Jerome  Cardamus,  sixteenth  century,  the  companion  of 
Paracelsus,  ranking  among  the  first  scholars  of  his  age,  a 
favorite  at  royal  courts,  div^inely  illumined,  was  very  reliable 
in  mediumship.  When  a  child,  he  spiritually  saw  groves, 
landscapes,  orbs,  "  without  any  previous  volition  or  antici- 
pation that  such  things  were  about  to  happen."  He  could 
not  recollect  any  event,  good  or  ill,  occurring  in  life,  of 
which  he  was  not  previously  admonished  either  in  dream  or 
vision.  He  spoke  with  great  emphasis  of  having  a  genius  or 
demon  perpetually  attending  him,  advising  as  to  what  would 
happen,  and  forewarning  him  of  danger.  Studying  astrology, 
he  calculated  the  nativity  of  King  Edward  VI.,  of  Jesus 
Christ,  predicted  the  time  of  his  own  death,  which  took 
place  in  the  75th  year  of  his  age,  fulfilling  his  prediction. 

Joan  d'Arc,  the  humble  shepherd  girl  of  Domremj,  was 
the  political  savior  of  France.     Bethlehem's  shepherds  were 


158  DOCTRINES   OF   SPIRITUALISTS. 

not  more  honored  by  the  Church  Fathers  than  this  sunny- 
souled,  spiritually  illuminated  girl  by  later  mj^stics.  No 
history  is  better  authenticated  than  that  which  relates  to  her 
visions,  prophecies  and  angelic  communings.  As  if  the  very 
leaves  of  her  favorite  tree,  under  which  she  so  often  sat,  rapt 
in  heavenly  reverie,  had  tongues,  she  heard  angel  voices 
announcing  her  future  mission.  Again  and  again  they 
called  witb  imperative  command;  and,  at  length,  inspired 
with  the  enthusiasm  of  patriotic  fulness,  she  meekly  and 
trustfully  obeyed.  Orleans  was  besieged  !  England's  reign- 
ing monarch  was  expectantly  waiting  to  snatch  the  crown  of 
France  !  Spirit-guided,  she  mounted  the  war-steed,  unfurled 
her  talismanic  banner,  thrilled  the  French  soldiers  with 
unconquerable  daring  to  gain  a  glorious  victory. 

Immortal  in  history,  artists  delighted  to  transfer  her  form 
to  the  canvas ;  Schiller  and  Southey  honored  her  in  poesy 
and  song;  defeating  the  phlegmatic  English,  they  burned 
her  for  a  witch  ! 

Jacob  B(EHMEN,  of  the  sixteenth  century,  surnamed  Teu- 
tonicus,  and  known  in  history  as  the  "  German  Mystic,"  or 
"  Theosophic  Enthusiast,"  was  a  native  of  Old  Seidenburgh, 
near  Goritz.  When  a  shoemaker  in  his  master's  shop,  he  waB 
visited  by  a  stranger  of  a  venerable  aspect,  who,  departing 
from  the  place,  exclaimed  with  a  loud  voice — "  Jacob ! 
Jacob  !  come  forth  !  "  The  lad  was  astonished  to  be  called 
by  his  Christian  name.  The  spirit-guided  personage  then 
taking  him  by  the  hand,  said,  "  Jacob,  thou  art  little,  but 
shalt  be  great,  and  become  another  man,  at  whom  the  world 
shall  wonder.  *  *  *  *  Thou  must  endure  much  misery 
and  poverty,  and  suffer  persecution;  but  be  encouraged,  and 
persevere,  for  God  loves  and  is  gracious  to  thee.'* 

These  words  produced  a  burning  impression  upon  his 
mind.  He  felt  the  power  of  the  commission  to  unfold  the 
mysteries  of  the  Apocalypse  and  the  inner  sense  of  the 
"Divine  Word."  He  became  a  voluminous  writer,  suffered 
persecution  for  his  innovating  thought,  blessed  all  the  world 


CHURCHAL    SPIRITUALISM  —  CHURCHIANIC.  16^ 

^ith  brighter  light,  and  finally  was  summoned  to  Dresden 
to  answer  to  the  charge  of  heresy.  After  a  tortuous  trial,  he 
was  honorably  dismissed. 

Speaking  of  himself,  he  says  :  "  After  the  gates  of  spiritual 
knowledge  were  opened  to  me,  I  was  compelled  to  commence 
working  at  this  (book)  like  a  child  that  goes  to  school.  In  the 
interim,  1  certainly  saw  the  truth  as  it  were  at  a  great  depth. 
*  *  *  *  From  time  to  time  it  opened  to  me  like  a  plant, 
l)ut  it  was  twelve  3'ears  before  I  could  bring  it  out." 

Dr.  Ilamberger  says,  introductorily  to  his  manuscripts : 
"  The  author  wrote  with  divine  inspiration  from  living  con- 
templation ;  but  it  cost  him  hard  battles,  and  it  was  not 
always  possible  to  reduce  what  he  saw  into  words  and  ideas." 
Like  illiterate  clairvoyants  and  visionists  of  the  present,  he 
found  it  difficult  to  classify  and  develop  his  revelations  to  the 
comprehension  of  practical  thinkers. 

Boehmen  passed  to  the  Summer  Land,  Nov.  18,  1624. 
Early  in  the  morning  he  called  his  loved  son  to  his  side,  and 
asked  if  he  heard  that  excellent  music !  Receiving  a  reply 
in  the  negative,  he  directed  him  to  open  the  door  that  he 
might  hear  it  better.  Asking,  afterward,  "what  the  hour?'' 
he  was  told  "  two" — upon  which  he  remarked  that  his  time 
was  "  yet  three  hours  hence."  When  it  was  near  six  o'clock, 
blessing  his  wife  and  son,  he  took  leave  of  them,  saying, 
'*  l^ow  I  go  hence  into  Paradise !  "  He  then  bade  his  son 
turn  him,  and  with  a  deep  peaceful  sigh,  his  sweet  spirit 
departed. 

Raphael,  speaking  of  his  paintings,  conscious  of  inspira- 
tions, says  his  "  whole  work  is  accomplished  as  it  were  in  a 
pleasant  dream  ! " 

Dannecker,  the  German  sculptor,  said  he  "  obtained  his 
idea  of  Christ  in  a  dream — spiritually  impressed — after  failing 
to  realize  it  in  his  wakins:  hours." 

Lord  Bacon,  the  master  thinker,  the  religious  philosopher, 
Vnoae  wisdom  flashes  in  all  our  literature,  was  a  clear  headed. 


160  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

devout  Spiritualist.  We  respectfully  ask  the  soi-dista)  i 
scientists  of  the  clerical  orders  to  reject  Lord  Bacon  from 
the  list  of  "  authorities,"  or  else  respect  his  teachings,  ol 
which  the  following  extracts  from  his  works  are  samples. 
In  his  preface  to  his  "  Ghreat  Insiauration,''  he  prays  that — 

"  What  is  human  may  not  clash  with  what  is  divine;  and  that  when 
the  ways  of  the  senses  are  opened,  and  a  greater  natural  light  set  up  in 
the  mind,  nothing  of  incredulity  and  blindness  towards  divine  mysteries 
may  arise;  but  rather  that  the  understanding  now  cleared  up,  and 
purged  of  all  vanity  and  superstition,  may  remain  entirely  subject  to 
the  divine  oracles,  and  yield  to  faith  the  things  that  are  faith's."  (Bohn's 
Edition,  preface,  p.  9.) 

Again  he  says : 

"  As  to  the  nature  of  spirits  and  angels,  this  is  neither  unsearchable 
nor  forbid,  but  in  a  great  part  level  to  the  human  mind,  on  account  of 
their  affinity.  We  are,  indeed,  forbid  in  Scripture  to  worship  angels, 
or  to  entertain  fantastical  opinions  of  them  so  as  to  exalt  them  above 
the  degree  of  creatures,  or  think  of  them  higher  than  we  have  reason; 
but  the  sober  inquiry  about  them,  which  either  ascends  to  a  knowledge 
of  their  nature  by  the  scale  of  corporeal  beings,  or  views  them  in  the 
mind,  as  in  a  glass,  is  by  no  means  foolish.  The  same  is  to  be  under- 
stood of  revolted  or  unclean  spirits ;  conversation  with  them,  or  using 
their  assistance,  is  unlawful ;  and  much  more  in  any  manner  to  worship 
or  adore  them ;  but  the  contemplation  and  knowledge  of  their  nature, 
power  and  illusions,  appears  from  Scripture,  reason  and  experience,  to 
be  no  small  part  of  spiritual  wisdom.  Thus  says  the  apostle,  '  Strat- 
egematum  ejus  non  ignari  sumus'  (2  Cor.  ii.  11).  And  thus  it  is  as 
lawful  in  natural  theology  to  investigate  the  nature  of  evil  spirits,  as  the 
nature  of  poisons  in  physics,  or  the  nature  of  vice  in  morality." 
("  Advancement  of  Learning,^'  121-2). 

Sir  Thomas  Browne,  who  lived  about  half  a  century  after 
Bacon,  one  of  the  ablest  thinkers  of  his  age,  and  an  open 
advocate  of  Spiritualism,  says,  in  his  "  Religio  Medici"  : 

'•  Those  that,  to  confute  their  incredulity,  desire  to  see  apparitions, 
shall  questionless  never  behold  any.  The  devil  hath  them  already  in  a 
heresy  as  capital,  as  witchcraft,  and  to  appear  to  them  were  but  to 
convert  them." 

An  admirer  of  Paracelsus,  he  adds :  "  Our  good  angels 
reveal  many  things  to  those  who  seek  into  the  works  of 
nature." 


CHURCHAL    SPIRITUALISM  —  CHURCHIANTC.  161 

Schiller,  an  inspirational  poet,  intimates  that  his  ideaa 
were  not  his  own — "  that  they  flowed  in  upon  him  so  rapidly 
and  powerfully,  his  only  diflSiculty  was  to  seize  them  and 
write  them  down  fast  enough." 

George  Fox,  sainted  and  sable  clad,  charged  with  the 
magnetic  lightnings  of  heaven,  caused  the  church  steeples 
of  England  to  tremble  as  cedars  of  Lebanon  before  Syrian 
winds.  His  inspirations  have  streamed  down  to  the  present, 
giving  him,  in  the  estimation  of  the  appreciative,  an  almost 
apostolic  sanctity.  His  spiritual  experiences,  bis  power  to 
read  souls,  his  prescience,  his  healing  gifts,  and  his  obedience 
to  'Uhe  still,  small  voice,"  all  rank  him  one  of  the  first  in 
the  angelic  phalanx  of  mediumship.  In  his  "  Works  "  we 
find  the  following  facts.  Entering  the  city  of  Litchfield, 
under  spirit  control,  he  had  the  experiences  of  a  genuine 
prophet : 

"  Then  I  was  commanded  of  the  Lord  to  pull  off  my  shoes.  I'  stood 
Btill,  for  it  was  winter;  and  the  word  of  the  Lord  was  like  a  fire  unto 
me. 

"  Then  I  walked  about  a  mile,  and  as  soon  as  I  got  within  the  city, 
the  word  of  the  Lord  came  unto  me — '  Cry,  wo  to  the  bloody  city  of 
Litchfield ! ' 

"  So  I  went  up  and  down  the  streets  and  into  the  market-place,  and 
cried,  '  Wo  to  the  bloody  city  of  Litchfield  ! ' 

"  As  I  went,  there  seemed  to  be  a  channel  of  blood  through  the 
streets. 

"  When  I  had  declared  what  was  upon  me,  and  felt  myself  at  peace, 
I  went  out  of  the  town.  Afterward  I  came  to  understand  that  in  the 
Emperor  Dioclesian's  time  a  thousand  Christians  were  martyred  there. 

"  So  the  sense  of  their  blood  was  upon  me,  and  I  obeyed  the  word  of 
the  Lord. 

"  At  Ulverstone,  at  the  home  of  Maro-aret  1^'ell,  a  woman  of  hirrli 
repute,  when  asked  to  go  to  a  church  to  speak,  he  walked  in  the  field 
and  the  word  came,  '  Go  to  the  steeple-house.'  " 

Though  such  experiences  are  common  with  the  media  of 

our  day,  the  conservative  followers  of  George  Fox  discard 

them,  indicating  the  unspiritual  tendency  of  that  sect. 
11 


162  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

On  another  occasion,  he  said: 

"  I  went  to  a  meeting  at  Arnside,  where  Richard  Myers  was,  who  had 
been  along  time  lame  of  one  arm.  I  was  moved  of  the  Lord  to  say  to 
him  amongst  all  the  people,  '  Stand  upon  thy  legs.'  And  he  stood  up 
and  stretched  out  his  arm  and  said,  '  Be  it  known  unto  you,  all  people, 
that  this  day  I  am  healed.' 

"  lie  came  soon  after  to  Swartmore  meeting  and  declared  how  the 
Lord  had  healed  him. 

"  The  Lord  hath  given  me  a  spirit  of  discerning,  by  which  I  many 
times  saw  the  states  and  conditions  of  people,  and  could  try  their 
spirits." 

Why  cannot  the  declining  sect  of  the  Quakers  recognize 
the  marvelous  heauty  of  that  spiritual  power  manifest  in  our 
midst  to-day,  as  well  as  that  which  has  flowed  in  broken 
currents  of  inspiration,  tinged  with  the  theological  idiosyn 
cracies  of  intervening  centuries  ? 

Lucas  Jacobson  Debes,  of  Denmark,  a  personage  in  his 
day  of  religious  authority,  published  a  book  in  1667,  in  which 
he  relates  an  instance  of  angelic  visitation  to  Jacob  Ollusson, 
being  then  at  Giow.  We  quote  the  language  of  this  reliable 
author:  "On  the  fourteenth  day  of  his  illness,  as  he  lay 
/isleep  at  night,  there  came  one  to  him  with  shining  clothes 
on,  whereat  he  awoke,  and  perceived  him  (the  angel)  by  him 
in  that  figure,  the  room  appearing  full  of  splendor;  and  it 
asked  the  man  where  his  pain  was.  Whereunto  he  answered 
nothing.  Afterward  the  angel  stroked  him  with  his  hand 
along  his  breast,  and  round  about;  whereby  he  was  perfectly 
healed.'' 

This  testimony  bears  the  unmistakable  marks  of  truthful- 
ness, beautifully  illustrative  of  the  curative  agencies  of  spirits 
by  the  manipulations  of  the  hand  direct  or  indirect  by 
mediation. 

Richard  Baxter,  in  his  "  Historical  Discourse  on  Appari- 
tions and  Witches,"  writes  an  account  of  an  acquaintance  of 
his,  "a  gentleman  of  considerable  rank,"  who,  addicted  to 
intemperance,  was  always  visited  by  a  spirit  immediately 


CHURCH AL    SPIRITUALISM  —  CHURCHIANIC.  168 

after  'Mie  had  slept  himself  sober,"  warning  him  of  his  vice 
by  rapping  on  his  head-board,  and  other  visible  signs  of 
heavenly  guai'dianship  and  discipline.  Mr,  Baxter,  having 
seen  the  man,  and  besongbt  him  to  reform,  believing  the 
spirit  presence  to  have  been  genuine,  conscientiously  and 
feelingly  asked,  "Do  good  spirits  dwell  so  near  us?  or,  Are 
they  sent  on  such  messages?  or.  Is  it  his  guardian  angel? " 

Walton,  the  celebrated,  in  his  biography  of  the  learned 
Dr.  Donne,  in  King  James'  time,  after  giving  remarkable 
tests  of  spirit  influences  and  revelations,  illustrates  the  law 
of  spiritual  sympathy,  whereby  a  spirit  can  impress  a  medi- 
umistic  mind,  by  the  use  of  musical  instruments.  Contend- 
ing that  visions  and  miracles  have  not  ceased,  he  says :  "  It 
is  most  certain  that  two  lutes,  being  both  strung  and  tuned 
to  an  equal  pitch,  the  one  played  upon,  and  the  other  not 
touched,  but  laid  upon  a  table,  at  a  fit  distance,  will,  like  an 
echo  to  a  trumpet,  warble  a  faint,  audible  harmony  in  answer 
to  the  same  tune.  Yet  many  will  not  believe  that  there  is 
such  a  thing  as  sympathy  with  souls !  " 

John  Aubrey,  a  distinguished  antiquarian,  published,  in 
1695,  a  book  of  "  Miscellanies,"  in  which,  bringing  King 
James  as  witness,  he  speaks  of  a  haunted  house  whose  super- 
intending spirit  was  a  faithful  "rough  man."  He  parallels 
certain  phases  of  modern  psychological  influences  where  the 
spirit,  planed  to  the  earthly,  caused  the  "  seer  "  to  "  sw^ear, 
tremble  and  screech."  He  recommended  the  ministry  always 
to  intervene  in  cases  of  spirit  control  and  "  exorcise  the 
ghost."  Exorcism,  philosophically  speaking,  consists  in 
bringing  a  stronger  magnetic  power  to  bear  upon  the 
subject,  scattering  and  dissipating  the  previously  adjusted 
spirit-forces.  The  moral  peril  of  such  interferences  among 
ignorant,  unspiritual  clergy,  is,  that  when  "  the  house  is  swept 
and  garnished,"  the  dispossessed  spirit,  forced  away,  returns, 
at  the  first  opportunity,  with  seven  other  spirits  worse  than 
hir?iseLf,  and  "  the  last  state  of  that  man  is  worse  than  the 


164  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

first."  Force  repels  force;  hate  begets  hate;  but  the  only 
subduing,  saving  power  in  the  universe,  is  wisely  disciplined 
love. 

The  Scotch  repeatedly  aver  that  infants  are  seers — a  fact 
demonstrated  by  our  own  observation.  How  beautifully  the 
legend  of  our  ALorioines  chimes  in  with  the  Highlander's 
happy  gift!  The  Indians — nature's  children — tell  us  when 
the  innocent  babe,  cribbed  in  its  willow  basket,  looks  out 
into  seeming  vacancy  and  smiles,  its  grandmother  has  come 
from  the  "  hunting  grounds  "  to  greet  it. 

The  rustic  people,  especially  the  Highlanders,  of  Scotland, 
have  ever  been  celebrated  for  their  gifts  of  "  Second  Sight" 
— clairvoyance.  As  gardens  and  flowers  tend  to  the  culti- 
vation of  the  beautiful,  so  mountainous  regions  to  the 
development  of  the  spiritual. 

The  Scotch  historians  also  testify  to  what  is  apparent  in 
the  modern  phenomena,  that  this  so-called  "  strange  gift " 
does  not  depend  upon  moral  character,  but  upon  organization. 
They  assert  that  certain  beasts  are  seers — horses  especially. 
An  instance  of  this  kind  occurred  in  the  Isle  of  Skye,  where 
a  horse  discerned  a  spirit  at  the  same  time  with  his  rider, 
and  was  frightened.  This  statement  is  not  without  its 
historic  support.  Paracelsus  informs  us  that  horses,  and 
even  dogs,  have  their  "  auguries."  Our  good  churchmen 
will  not  surely  discredit  testimony  like  this,  since  they  do 
believe  that  Balaam's  beast  "  saw  the  Angel  of  the  Lord 
standing  in  the  way,  wita  a  drawn  sword  in  his  hand.  *  *  * 
And  the  Lord  opened  the  mouth  of  the  beast,  and  she  said 
nnto  Balaam,  <■  What  have  I  done  unto  thee,  that  thou  hast 
smitten  me  these  three  times  ? '  "  That  an  angel  spoke  to 
Balaam  through  a  beast,  is  very  acceptable  in  church  circles ; 
but  that  our  spirit  friends  impress,  inspire,  and  speak  through 
human  lips,  is  blasphemous ! 

John  Xnox,  the  fierce  reformer  of  Scotland,  who  knocked 
down  steeples  and  popish  mummeries,  and  who,  in  his  stern- 
ness,  after  the  pattern  of  Luther,  stripped    religion  of  the 


CHURCHAL    SPIRITUALISM  —  CHURCHIANIC.  165 

beautiful  and  gay,  theoretically  denying  the  perpetuity  of 
revelations  fresh  from  the  divine  fountain,  had  an  expe- 
rience Avith  spirits  convicting  him  of  their  direct  ministry, 
though  he  studiously  avoided  any  very  public  avowal  of 
them.  Very  Protestant,  sure.  He  avows  his  belief,  however, 
though  with  precaution,  lest  his  course  might  be  construed 
by  Catholics  as  inconsistent  with  his  precept.  He  was  a 
powerful  medium,  and  under  the  inner  light  that  flamed  in 
his  soul,  he  said  : 

"I  dare  not  deny,  lest  I  be  injurious  to  the  giver,  that  God  hath 
revealed  unto  me  secrets  unknown  to  the  world;  yea,  certain  great 
revelations  of  mutations  and  changes  where  no  such  things  were  feared, 
nor  yet  were  appearing.  Notwithstanding  these  revelations  I  did 
abstain  to  commit  anything  to  writing,  contented  only  to  have  obeyed 
the  charge  of  Him  who  commanded  me  to  cry." 

The  New  England  Witchcraft,  that,  to  this  day,  casts  a 
lurid  light  over  puritanical  history,  was  a  species  of  psycho- 
logical epidemic,  wherein  the  magnetisms  of  both  worlds, 
owing  to  the  prevalence  of  false  ideas  touching  spiritual  laws, 
were  inharmoniously  adjusted  to  the  development  of  moral 
truth.  Spirits,  not  infallible,  evidently  endeavored  at  this 
period  to  establish  an  open  communication  between  the 
inhabitants  of  this  and  the  spirit-world ;  but  ignorance  was 
too  deep,  clerical  influence  too  potent.  Priests,  basing  their 
authority  on  the  Mosaic  teaching — "  Thou  shalt  not  suffer  a 
witch  to  live  " — were  instrumental  in  murdering  the  media. 
The  experiment  a  partial  failure,  the  immortals  withdrew 
their  forces,  waiting  a  more  auspicious  era. 

Cotton  Mather,  regarded  as  good  authority,  furnished  a 
compendium  of  mediumistic  control.  In  1662,  Anne  Cole, 
"  a  person  of  serious  piety,  living  in  the  house  of  her  godly 
father,  at  Hartford,  was  taken  with  strange  fits" — trances — 
and  caused  to  express  "strange  things  unknown  to  herself, 
her  tongue  being  guided  by  a  demon."  Confessing  to  the 
"ministers,"  that  she  had  "familiarity  with  the  deviP' — 
spirit  pre.sences — '  the  woman  was  executed  !  " 


166  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

The  "physical  phenomena''  of  those  perilous  days  boie  a 
striking  resemblance  to  those  of  the  present — such  as  haunted 
houses,  raising  of  bodies,  noises,  trances,  clairvoyance,  chiir- 
audience  and  prophecies.  The  case  of  the  unfortunate  Anne 
Cole  was  but  one  among  hundreds  and  tens  of  thousands 
who,  in  this  country  and  Europe,  were  arraigned,  tried  and 
executed  for  witchcraft ! 

Had  the  clergy  not  sought  to  divorce  reason  from  religion 
— mental  science  from  religion — common  sense  from  reli- 
gion— with  an  eye  to  the  "  glory  of  God,"  as  revealed 
through  Hebrew  goggles,  this  murderous  mania,  instigated 
by  priestcraft,  would  not  have  stained  with  blood  the  historic 
page. 

William  Blake — artist,  poet,  idealist — oh,  for  adequate 
words  to  sing  thy  praises  !  Walking  among  men,  men  knew 
thee  not;  hut  angels  knew  thee,  and  the  richest  gold  of  thy 
soul  which  shines  now  the  brighter  for  the  ordeals  of 
thy  trials!  So  completely  did  he  live  in  the  ideal  world, 
which  he  wove  around  him  as  a  garment  of  glory — so  con- 
stantly did  he  look  thro'  it  into  the  inner  life,  that  external 
things  became  as  passing  dreams.  A  seer  by  birth,  he 
discerned  the  innermost,  and  reveled  enraptured  in  what 
cold  plodders  called  "  imagination."  An  English  author, 
criticising  Blake's  life  by  Alex.  Gilchrist,  says  : 

"The  attempt  to  do  more  than  accept  the  subjective  reality  of  the 
visions,  rested  solely  upon  the  ground  of  their  confidence  in  Blake's 
veracity.  Thus  he  would  say,  '  I  saw  Socrates  to-day ;  he  said  to  me 
thus  and  thus.' 

"  The  visionary  (spirit)  heads  which  Blake  drew  in  the  company  of 
John  Varley  furnish  an  example  to  the  point.  The  remarkable  pro- 
ductions were  professedly  copies  of  what  Blake  at  the  moment  saw.  He 
would  see  King  Edward  I.,  and  looking  up  now  and  then,  with  most 
perfect  composure,  at  his  imaginary  sitter,  would  draw  his  portrait. 
Varley,  who  had  faith  in  Blake's  power  of  vision  and  also  in  Blake's 
doctrine  that  it  was  a  universal  gift,  sat  beside  him,  and,  since  he  made 
Bonie  profession  to  a  spiritual  sight,  being  an  astrologer  in  his  way, 
looked  wistfully  in  the  direction  to  which  Blake's  eyes  pointed,  in 
earnest  hope  of  seeing  the  same  sight.  He  was  honest  and  looked  as 
hard  as  he  could,  but  his  honesty  compelled  him  to  confess  that  he  saw 


CHURCHAL    SPIRITUALISM  —  CHURCHIANIC.  107 

no  king  before  his  eyes.  Blake  held  that  he  drew  what  lie  saw,  and 
Inasmuch  as  he  saw  angels  more  distinctly  than  some  artists  seem  to  see 
men,  he  drew  them  boldly,  gave  them  something  to  exist  in,  instead  ot 
adopting  a  common  trick,  and  trying  to  conceal  a  fearful  absence  of 
body  by  an  unmistakable  presence  of  clothing. 

"  There  is  a  subtle  element  in  Blake's  poetry,  disengaging  one  from 
objects  of  sense  and  leading  the  enchanted  spirit  on  a  far  journey,  A 
similar  power  in  different  form  appears  in  certain  poems  of  Coleridge_ 
which  was  heightened,  if  we  are  to  believe  his  cotemporaries,  by  the 
recital  of  the  poet.  The  entranced  listeners  might  float  with  Coleridge 
to  Xanadu,  to  get  back  as  they  could  at  the  unfortunate  end  of  the 
poet's  vocal  journey,  while  he  traveled  on  by  himself,  whither  no  one 
but  himself  could  tell,  and  whither,  alas  !  he  has  failed  to  tell  us.  It 
is  related  by  his  biographer,  that  Blake  used  to  sing  his  songs  to  music 
which  he  had  composed,  but  which  never  was  written  down.  What 
angelic  melody  it  ought  to  have  been ! " 

This  eminent  Spiritualist  was  born  in  1757,  and  lived 
uninterruptedly  in  London,  except  three  years  in  Chichester, 
to  fulfill  an  engagement  with  Haley,  Cowper's  biographer. 

We  pore  over  the  productions  of  Blake's  genius,  wonder- 
ing, delighted,  awed,  and  inquire  of  ourselves,  Who  is  this 
man,  that  had  so  little  in  common  with  earth  ? — who  paints 
his  pictures? — who  sings  his  songs?  Of  himself  he  wouk" 
say: 

"  I  live  in  a  hole  here,  but  Grod  has  a  beautiful  mansion  for  mc 
elsewhere.  *  ^  --jc  jk  *  «  » 

"  I  am  not  ashamed,  afraid,  or  averse  to  tell  you — what  ought  to  hi 
told — that  I  am  under  the  direction  of  messengers  from  heaven,  daily 
and  nightly.  But  the  nature  of  such  things  is  not,  as  some  suppose, 
without  trouble  or  care.  Temptations  are  on  the  right  hand  and  on 
the  left.  Behind,  the  sea  of  time  and  space  roars  and  follows  swiftly. 
He  who  keeps  not  right  onward  is  lost :  and  if  our  footsteps  slide  in 
clay,  what  can  we  do  otherwise  than  fear  and  tremble  J  *  *  *  If 
we  fear  to  do  the  dictates  of  our  angels,  and  tremble  at  the  tasks  set 
before  us ;  if  we  refuse  to  do  spiritual  acts  because  of  natural  fears  or 
natural  desires ;  who  can  describe  the  dismal  torments  of  such  a  state  I 
I  too  well  remember  the  threats  I  heard  :  "  If  you.  who  are  organized 
by  Divine  Providence  for  spiritual  communion,  refuse,  and  bury  your 
talent  in  the  earth,  even  though  you  should  want  natural  bread — sor- 
row and  desperation  pursue  you  through  life,  and  after  death  shame 
and  confusion  of  face.  Every  one  in  eternity  will  leave  you,  aghast  at 
the  man  who  was  crowned  with  glory  and  honor  by  his  brethren  and 


168  DOCIRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

betrayed  their  cause  to  their  enemies.  You  will  be  called  the  base 
.Tudas  who  betrayed  his  frieni!'  Such  words  would  make  any  stout 
man  tremble,  and  how  then  could  I  be  at  ease  ?  But  I  am  now  no 
longer  in  that  state,  and  now  go  on  again  with  my  task,  fearless, 
though  my  path  is  difficult.  I  have  no  fear  of  stumbling  while  I 
keep  it." 

Louis  XVI.,  benevolent  and  reformatory,  has  been  styled 
'*  noblest  of  all  the  reigning  Bourbons."  "Coming  to  his 
own,  his  own  received  him  not."  Arraigned,  tried  by  a 
boisterous  assembly,  he  was  heartlessly  condemned  to  the 
block.  Seeing  the  courier  sent  to  inform  him  of  his  fate,  he 
exclaimed — "  I  know  it  all  I  I  know  it  all  I  Last  nio:ht  I 
saw  a  female  form  clothed  in  stainless  white,  walking  these 
solitary  apartments.  When  the  reigning  powers  of  the  throne 
behold  a  vision  of  this  character,  they  know  that  prince  or 
king  is  to  be  dethroned  and  slain.  Tell  my  accusers  to 
prepare  to  meet  me  in  the  land  of  the  just! " 

Maria  Antoinette — fated  child  of  imperial  destiny  !  !N'ever 
was  mother  more  proud  than  Maria  Theresa,  on  the  eve  of 
her  daughter's  marriage.  Before  her  glittered  the  first  throne 
of  Europe,  to  be  shared  by  a  successor  of  St.  Louis.  Night 
resting  upon  Vienna,  the  church  festival  over,  the  benedic- 
tion pronounced,  the  empress  retires  to  her  chamber,  but 
not  to  sleep.  Speaking  to  the  waiting-woman,  she  inquires 
who  is  there? 

"  A  stranger ;  he  has  been  seeking  your  presence  a  full 
hour." 

The  waiting-woman  leaving,  soon  returned,  and  ushered 
in  an  elderly  man  dressed  in  black.  This  is  Dr.  Gassner, 
one  of  those  men  who,  about  the  year  1770,  were  scattered 
throughout  Europe — a  Cagliostro,  or  St.  Germain — perform- 
ing cures  by  the  laying  on  of  hands,  seeing  visions,  indulg- 
ing in  prophecies  and  inspirations.  "His  relations  to  the 
spiritual  world  had  brought  him  in  conflict  with  various 
ecclesiastical  princes,  until  he  found  refuge  at  the  court  of 
Maria  Theresa,  for  the  empress  had  a  love  for  the  mysterious. 


CHURCHAL    SPIRITUALISM  —  CHURCHIANIC.  1G9 

Sh  .  had  frequent  interviews  with  the  wonderful  man;  to-day 
she  wished  for  a  grave  proof  of  his  higher  knowledge." 

The  Doctor,  placing  his  hand  upon  the  shoulder  of  the 
empress,  said  slowly,  in  a  hollow  voice,  **  Your  majesty,  the 
noble  shoulders  of  Maria  Antoinette  are  destined  to  bear  a 
heavy  cross." 

Maria  Antoinette,  spiritually  impressed,  as  the  carriage 
rolled  away,  exclaimed,  "  I  shall  never  see  Vienna  again  !  " 
and  cried  aloud,  ''  Maria  Theresa!  Maria  Theresa!" 

During  the  Revolution,  often  thinking  of  the  Doctor's 
prophetic  words,  she  believed  herself  destined  to  a  tragical 
fate.  Upon  the  scaffold,  with  a  true  womanly  bravery,  she 
uttered  these  words :  "  Farewell,  my  children,  I  go  to  your 
father.  *  *  *  =h  ^^  shall  return  to  you  as  guardian 
angels.     Trust  in  God !  " 

Madame  Elizabeth,  sweetest  soul  of  France,  sister  of 
Louis  XVI.,  angel  of  his  household  during  his  trials  and 
translation  to  the  Isles  of  the  Blest,  shed  a  silvery  radiance 
over  the  royal  family  and  the  entire  kingdom.  Full  of 
divine  forgiveness  and  pious  enthusiasm,  she  was  intromitted 
through  the  gateway  of  dreams  and  visions,  into  the  society 
of  spirits.  Though  a  princess  and  heir  apparent  to  the 
throne  of  the  Bourbons,  she  was  so  guileless  and  affectional 
in  her  nature,  that  she  daily  walked  and  talked  with  angels. 

"Every  sentence,  oh,  how  tender! 
Every  line  was  full  of  love." 

Like  Cecilia,  the  Catholic  martyr,  doomed  also  to  fall  to 
"  low  ambition  and  the  pride  of  kings,"  so  beautiful  was  she 
in  form,  so  harmonious  and  musical  in  spirit,  she  drew  the 
angels  down  to  see  her,  and  "  eyes  were  turned  to  ears." 

Josephine,  the  arbitress  of  IN'apoleon's  destiny,  wdic 
prophesied  his  star  would  set  when  his  ambition  sundered 
the  love-chord  that  furnished  him  with  inspirational  power 
from  her  own  heart,  not  only  accepted  faith  in  guardian 
ingels,  but  actualized  it  with  the  beguiling  Houris  in  nighf 


170  DOCTRINES   OF   SPIRITUALISTS. 

visions  and  day-dreams  of  the  spiritual.  She  gives  the 
following  account  of  an  interview  with  Euphemia,  a  magician 
of  her  native  isle  : 

"  The  old  sibyl,  on  beholding  me,  uttered  a  loud  exclamation,  and 
almost  by  force  seized  my  hand  She  appeared  to  be  under  the  greatest 
agitation.  Amused  at  these  absurdities,  as  I  thought  them,  I  allowed 
her  to  proceed,  saying,  '  So  you  discover  something  extraordinary  in  my 
destiny?'  'Yes.'  '  Is  happiness  or  misfortune  to  be  my  lot  ?  '  Mis- 
fortune :  ah,  stop  ! — and  happiness,  too.'  '  You  take  care  not  to  commit 
yourself,  my  good  dame;  your  oracles  are  not  the  most  intelligible.'  '  ] 
am  not  permitted  to  render  them  more  clear,'  said  the  woman,  raising 
her  eyes  with  a  mysterious  expression  toward  heaven.  '  But.  to  the 
point,'  replied  I,  for  my  curiosity  began  to  be  excited ;  '  what  read  you 
concerning  me  in  futurity  ?  '  '  What  do  I  see  in  the  future  ?  You 
will  not  believe  me  if  I  speak.'  '  Yes,  indeed,  I  assure  you.  Come, 
my  good  mother,  what  am  T  to  fear  and  hope  ?  '  '  On  3'our  head  be  it 
then  ;  listen  :  you  will  be  married  soon ;  that  union  will  not  be  happy ; 
you  will  become  a  widow,  and  then — then  you  will  be  Queen  of  France  ! 
Some  happy  years  will  be  yours ;  but  you  will  die  in  a  hospital,  amid 
civil  commotions.' " 

Mozart,  the  great  musical  genius  of  his  age,  speaking  of 
his  inspirational  moments,  when  melodies  fell  unhidden  upon 
his  soul,  said :  "  All  my  feelings  and  composition  go  on 
within  me  only  as  a  lively  and  delightful  dream." 

He  gave  a  further  account  of  receiving  his  masterly  pro- 
ductions from  the  rythmic  sphere  of  spiritual  harmonies  in 
the  following  language : 

"  When  all  goes  well  with  me — when  I  am  in  a  carriage,  or  walking, 
or  when  I  cannot  sleep  at  night,  the  thoughts  come  streaming  in  upon 
me  most  fluently ;  whence,  or  how  is  more  than  I  can  tell.  Then 
follow  the  counterpoint — and  the  clang  of  the  different  instruments  ; 
and,  if  I  am  not  disturbed,  my  soul  is  fixed,  and  the  thing  grows 
greater,  and  broader,  and  clearer  ;  and  I  have  it  all  in  my  head,  even 
when  the  piece  is  a  long  one  ;  and  I  see  it  like  a  beautiful  picture — not 
hearing  the  different  parts  in  succession,  as  they  must  be  played,  but 
tlie  ivhole  at  once.  That  is  the  delight !  The  composing  and  making 
is  like  a  beautiful  and  vivid  dream ;  but  this  hearing  of  it  is  the  best 
of  all." 

These  are  fine  examples  of  inspirational  influx  and 
clairaudience. 


CHURCHAL    SPIRITUALISM  —  CHURCiflANlC.  171 

"Wlien,  in  his  last  days,  quietly  approaching  the  summer 
ehore  of  heaven,  being  composed  and  calm,  some  friend  of 
his  passing  through  the  room,  he  exclaimed — "Listen! 
listen  !  I  hear  music  !  "  His  friend  said,  "  I  hear  nothing." 
Mozart  paused  with  rapture  beaming  on  his  sallow  face, 
averring  that  he  heard  music,  and  quoted  the  testimony  of 
John  with  a  sweet  trust  that  plumed  his  spirit-wings  for  a 
better  flight — 

"And  I  heard  music  in  heaven." 

Having  finished  the  "  Requiem,"  his  soul  filled  with  inspi- 
rations of  richest  melody,  and  already  claiming  kindred  with 
immortals,  giving  it  its  last  touch,  the  "  cygnean  strain " 
which  was  to  consecrate  it  through  all  time,  and  then  falling 
into  a  gentle  slumber,  during  which  his  ministering  angel 
enrapt  his  soul  in  the  glory  forecast  from  the  land  of  song, 
he  awoke  at  the  light  footstep  of  his  daughter  Emelie,  and 
called  her  to  him — "  Come  hither,  my  Emelie — my  task  is 
done — the  Eequiem — my  Requiem  is  finished ! "  At  his 
earnest  request  she  sung  it,  commencing — 

"Spirit!  thy  labor  is  o'er! 

Thy  term  of  probation  is  run, 
Thy  steps  are  now  bound  for  the  untrodden  shore, 
And  the  race  of  immortals  begun." 

"  As  she  concluded,  she  dwelt  for  a  moment  on  the  low 
melancholy  notes  of  the  piece,  and  then  turned  from  the 
instrument  to  meet  the  approving  smile  of  her  father.  It 
was  the  still,  passionless  smile  which  the  rapt  and  departed 
spirit  left  upon  the  features." 

Beethoven  whose  soul  was  toned  to  musical  ecstacy,  con- 
fessed to  an  overmastering  power,  the  rythmic  harmonies  of 
angels.  In  his  own  words,  music  was  to  him  a  higher  reve- 
lation than  all  the  artificial  philosophy  of  the  world.  Hear 
his  inspiring  language:  "I  must  live  with  myself  a.one.  1 
well  know  that  God  and  angels  are  nearer  to  me  in  my  art 
than  the    others.     1   commune   with   them  without   dread. 


172  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

Music  is  the  only  unembodied  entrance  into  a  higher  sphere 
of  knowledge  Avhich  possesses  man."  After  some  of  the 
sweetest  utterances,  he  would  exclaim  —  "I've  had  a 
raptuve!"  Goethe,  in  speaking  of  him,  terms  him  a 
*' demon-possessed  person,"  and  adds,  ^' it  would  be  mis- 
chievous to  advise  him,  because  his  genius  continually 
inspires  him." 

Goethe,  rare  soul  of  poetry  and  song,  whose  ante-natal 
tendencies  were  spiritual,  and  whose  physical  perfection 
justly  entitled  him  to  a  comparison  with  Apollo,  was  heralded 
into  earth-life  by  weird  dreams  of  future  greatness.  If  it  is 
true  that  all  poets  are  prophets,  it  is  equally  true  that  genuine 
poets  are  Spiritualists.  To  him  a  friend  said,  "  Thou  livest 
among  spirits  ;  they  give  thee  divine  wisdom  ;  "  and  he  said 
of  himself,  "  I  should  hold  myself  assured  of  the  gift  of 
prophecy  belonging  of  old  to  my  family."  He  considered 
himself  born  under  favorable  stars,  and  is  reported  to  have 
said  to  his  mother  at  seven  years  of  age,  "  The  stars  will  not 
forget  me,  but  will  keep  the  promise  made  over  my  cradle." 
At  the  death  of  a  playmate  he  did  not  shed  a  tear,  but  said 
"  he  had  gone  to  dwell  in  the  fairy  world  before  him." 

SwEDENBORG,  the  mystic  and  Christian  philosopher,  of 
Sweden,  flourishing  in  the  seventeenth  century,  was  of  noble 
birth,  scholarly  in  attainments,  material  in  his  scientific 
pursuits,  theistic  in  his  religious  tendencies,  and,  up  to  the 
fifty-fifth  year  of  his  age,  was  a  traveler,  extensive  author  and 
man  of  the  world,  a  guest  at  royal  courts,  and  of  high  repute 
in  literary  circles.  About  this  period  of  his  life,  a  startling 
development  of  mental  conditions  blossomed  out,  opening  to 
his  inner  vision  the  spirit  world.  He  had  impressions, 
dreams,  visions;  conversed  with  spirits — heard  them — saw 
them — walked  with  them — reasoned  with  them  ;  and  was  so 
conscious  of  their  presence,  that  the  geography  of  their  homes 
became  as  familiar  as  his  own  native  land. 


CHURCHAL    SPIRITUALISM  —  CIIURCIHANIC.  178 

His  mediumship  has  been  seldom  excelled.  In  its  begin 
ning,  as  is  the  general  rule,  it  was  exceedingly  disorderly, 
and,  in  some  respects,  quite  as  disgusting  as  certain  phases  of 
"  modern  manifestations"  are  to  the  church.  We  select  the 
following,  as  a  few  among  the  many  fticts,  corroborative  of 
this  statement,  extracted  from  William  White's  two  London 
volumes  of  the  "Life  and  Writings  of  Swedenborg."  These 
are  based  upon  the  testimonies  of  Rev.  Aaron  Mathesius — a 
Swedish  minister  and  Chaplain  to  the  Embassy  in  1773 — Dr. 
Smith,  Brockmer,  John  Wesley,  Rev.  Francis  Okeley,  a 
Moravian  preacher,  and  others.  Though  Mathesius  and 
Swedenborg  were  antipodal  in  friendship,  the  testimony  of 
the  former  is  admitted  as  valid  by  Mr.  Okeley,  who,  writing 
of  Mathesius'  story  as  published  by  Wesley,  remarks  : 

"  'There  is  no  denying  that  in  the  year  1743  (174-i),  when  Sweden- 
borg was  first  (as  he  said)  introduced  into  the  Spiritual  World,  he  was 
for  a  while  insaue.  He  then  lived  with  Mr.  Brockmer,  as  Mr.  J. 
Wesley  has  published  in  his  Arminian  Magazine  for  January,  1781.  * 
*  *  *  As  I  rather  suspect  J.  W/s  narratives,  they  being  always 
warped  to  his  own  inclination,  I  inquired  of  Mr.  Brockmer  concerning 
it,  and  found  all  the  main  lines  of  it  truth.' 

This  may  be  considered  conclusive  in  favor  of  the  truth- 
fulness of  Mathesius. 


"  '  Many  years  ago  the  Baron  came  over  to  England,  and  lodged  at 

one  Mr.  Brockmer's,  who  informed  me  (and  the  same  information  was 

given  me  by  Mr.  Mathesius,  a  very  serious  Swedish  clergyman,  both 

of  whom  were    alive  when  I  left  London,  and,  I  suppose,  are  so  still), 

that  while  he  was  in  his  house  he  had  a  violent  fever ;  in  the  height  of 

which,  being  totally  delirious,  he  broke  from  Mr.  Brockmer,  ran  into 

the  street  stark   naked,   proclaimed  himself  the   Messiah,  and   rolled 

himself  in  the  mire. 

******* 

''  This  was  about  nine  in  the  evening.  Leaving  his  door  and  going 
up  stairs,  he  rushed  up  after  me,  making  a  fearful  appearance.  His 
hair  stood  upright,  and  he  foamed  round  the  mouth.  He  tried  to  speak, 
but  could  not  utter  his  thoughts,  stammeiing  long  before  he  could  get 
out  a  word. 

"  At  last  he  said,  that  he  had  something  to  confide  to  me  privately, 
oamely,  that  he  was  Messiah,  that  he  was  come  to  be  crucified  for  the 


174  DOCTRINES   OF   SPIRITUALISTS. 

Jews,  and  that  I  (since  lie  spoke  with  difficulty)  should  be  spokesman, 

and  go  with  him  to-morrow  to  the  Synagogue,  there  to  preach  his 

words. 

******* 

"  Whilst  I  was  with  Dr.  Smith,  Mr.  Swedenborg  went  to  the  Swedish 
Envoy,  but  was  not  admitted,  it  being  post-day.  Departing  thence  he 
pulled  off  his  clothes  and  rolled  himself  in  very  deep  mud  in  the  gutter. 
Then  he  distributed  money  from  his  pockets  among  the  crowd  which  had 
gathered. 

"  In  this  state  some  of  the  footmen  of  the  Swedish  Envoy  chanced  to 
see  him,  and  brought  him  to  me  very  foul  with  dirt." 

These  well  substantiated  facts  indicate  the  naturalness  of 
those  mental  and  psychological  changes,  incident  to  nearly  all 
media  in  their  growth  from  the  grosser  material  to  the  more 
spiritual  and  harmonial  planes  of  life.  Carlyle,  speaking  of 
similar  experiences,  says :  "  Such  transitions  are  ever  full  of 
pain  :  thus  the  eagle  when  he  moults  is  sickly;  and,  to  attain 
his  new  beak,  must  harshly  dash  off  the  old  one  upon  the 
rocks."  -  ~n 

In  common  with  all  the  churches,  the  present  followers  of  ^ 
Swedenborg  flippantly  berate  Spiritualists,  especially  the 
mediums  in  their  earlier  stages  of  development,  on  the 
ground  of  "  demoniac  possessions."  It  is  as  amusing  as 
pitiable  to  witness  the  holy  sneer  that  plays  upon  the  scorn- 
curled  lips  of  the  crystalized  Swedenborgian,  who,  with 
unwarrantable  assumption,  shrugs  his  shoulders  and  breathes 
in  manner,  if  not  in  words — "  Stand  by,  I  am  holier  than 
thou  ! " 

Looking  at  him  in  after  years,  when  chaos  had  rounded 
into  symmetrical  form,  and  disorderly  mediumship  had 
flowed  out  into  beautiful  harmony  and  sweetness  of  heavenly 
trust,  he  challenges  our  profoundest  admiration.  The  symboL 
key  held  in  his  hand,  he  opened  the  mysteries  of  the  heavene 
— the  "  Word "  being  to  him  a  link  of  correspondential 
thoughts  and  ideas  imaging  eternal  things.  Gazing  as 
through  an  angel  microscope,  and  reading  the  soul  of 
things,  all  the  universe  spread  itself  before  him  rightly  inter- 
preted— the   material    being   the  type  of  the  spiritual — ita 


CHURCHAL   SPIRITUALISM  —  CHURCHIANIC.  17(> 

body — and   all   objects   the  representations  of  mental   and 
moral  conditions. 

Mauger  the  chronic  church  notions  of  his  time,  his  doc- 
trines and  experiences  agree  with  those  of  modern  Spirit- 
ualists.    In  his  Spiritual  Diary,  4602,  he  affirms — 

"  That  there  is  an  influx  from  the  spiritual  world  into  the  natural 
world,  and  that  the  natural  world  thence  subsists,  as  from  it  it  began  to 
exist,  is  at  the  present  day  utterly  unknown;  because  it  is  not  known 
what  the  spiritual  is,  neither  do  men  wish  to  know  anything  but  what  ia 
natural,  wherefore  they  deny  anything  else,  especially  the  learned.  Man 
was  created  to  be  a  type  of  either  world  ;  his  interiors  to  be  a  type  of  the 
spiritual  world,  and  his  exteriors  to  be  a  type  of  the  natural  world,  to  the 
end  that  in  him  both  might  be  conjoined.  Hence  it  is  that  his  natural 
world,  or  microcosm,  does  not  live  except  by  influx  from  the  spiritual 
world,  and  that  there  is,  with  many,  a  continual  conatus  to  the  union  of 
both  worlds  in  him.'' 

He  taught  that  the  spiritual  is  the  real  man,  and  dwelt 
largely  upon  the  substantiality  of  the  spirit  world  as  a  realm 
of  groves  and  gardens,  seas  and  mountains,  forests  and  birds, 
and  nationalities  of  immortal  men  and  women,  having  habits, 
affections  and  aspirations  similar  to  those  they  cherished  in 
the  earth  life.  There  the  scholar  pursues  his  studies,  the 
poet  courts  diviner  muses,  the  geologist  probes  newly  formed 
orbs,  the  mathematician  calculates  immeasurable  distances, 
the  orator  discourses  in  lofty  strains  of  eloquence  to  assem- 
bled multitudes,  the  astronomer  counts  distant  stars  and 
resolves  nebulae  into  revolving  systems  of  suns  and  planets, 
and  the  reformer  who  once  walked  the  earth  with  bleeding 
feet,  now  crowned  in  the  heavens,  descends  to  revolutionize 
and  further  consummate  the  world's  emancipation. 

In  a  vision  he  foresaw  his  transition,  and,  full  of  rest, 
departed  at  the  time,  in  confirmation  of  his  own  prophecy. 

Thomas  Say,  member  of  the  Friends'  Church,  was  esteemed 
for  his  great  piety,  blameless  life,  and  sincerity  of  soul.  A 
compilation  of  his  writings  and  manuscripts  were  published 
in  Philadelphia,  1796,  by  Budd  and  Bartram.  Gifted  as  a 
speaker,  his  mediumship  assumed  the  forms  of  trance  and 
healing. 


176  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

His  biographer,  affirming  that  he  "  could  cure  wens,  remove 
tumors,  and  other  afflictive  diseases,  bj  stroking  with  the 
hand,"  says,  that  "  however  some  might  ridicule  this,  it  was 
a  fact,  in  proof  of  which  many  living  testimonies  could  be 
produced."  Fastings  and  secret  prayer  ever  proved  effica- 
cious ill  opening  his  inner  sight,  enabling  him  to  behold  with 
rapturous  joy  the  marvelous  glories  of  the  heavenly  world. 
We  transfer  one  of  his  spiritual  experiences  to  these  pages. 

"  On  the  ninth  day,  between  the  hours  of  four  and  five,  I  fell  into  a 
trance,  and  so  continued  till  about  the  hour  of  three  or  four  the  next 
morning.  After  my  departure  from  the  body  (for  I  left  the  hody)^  my 
father  and  mother,  Susannah  Robinson  and  others  who  watched  me, 
Bhook  my  body,  felt  for  my  pulse,  and  tried  if  they  could  discern  the 
remains  of  any  life  or  breath  in  me,  but  found  none.  Some  may  be 
desirous  to  know  whether  I  was  laid  out  or  not. 

*'  I  found  myself,  when  I  opened  my  eyes,  lying  on  my  back,  as  is  a 
corpse  on  a  board;  and  was  told  after  getting  better,  that  I  was  not  laid 
on  a  board,  because  mother  could  not  find  freedom  to  have  it  done. 
They  then  sent  for  Dr.  Kearsly,  who  attended  me,  for  his  opinion.  He 
found  no  pulse  nor  any  remains  of  life;  but  as  he  wao  going  away, 
returned  again,  and  said  that  something  came  into  his  mind  to  try 
further.  He  then  asked  for  a  small  looking-glass,  which  Catharine 
Souder,  who  lived  with  my  father,  procured.  The  doctor  placing  it 
over  my  mouth,  a  short  time  there  appeared  on  it  a  little  moisture.  The 
doctor  then  said  to  them,  if  he  is  not  dead  I  think  he  is  so  far  gone  he 
will  never  open  his  eyes  again ;  let  him  lie  while  he  continues  warm, 
and  when  he  begins  to  grow  cold,  lay  him  out. 

"  This  they  told  me  when  I  returned  into  the  body.  Upon  hearing 
me  speak,  they  were  all  very  much  surprised ;  the  second  time  I  spoke 
they  all  rose  from  their  chairs,  and  the  third  time  they  all  came  to  me 
My  father  and  mother  inquired  how  it  had  been  with  me  ?  I  answered, 
and  said  unto  them,  I  thought  I  had  been  dead  and  gone  to  heaven. 
After  I  left  my  body  I  heard,  as  it  were,  the  voices  of  men,  women  and 
children  singing  songs  of  praises  unto  the  Lord  God,  without  inter- 
mission, which  ravished  my  soul  and  threw  me  into  transports  of  joy. 
My  soul  was  also  delighted  with  most  beautiful  glades  and  gardens, 
which  appeared  to  me  on  every  side,  and  such  as  were  never  seen  in 
this  world.  Through  these  I  passed,  being  all  clothed  in  white,  and  in 
my  full  shape  without  the  least  diminution  of  parts.  As  I  passed  along 
toward  a  higher  state  of  bliss,  I  cast  my  eyes  (being  perfectly  conscious) 
upon  the  earth,  which  I  saw  plainly,  and  beheld  three  men  (whom  I 
knew)  die.  Two  of  them  were  white  men,  one  of  which  entered  into 
immediate  rest.  There  appeared  a  beautiful  transparent  gate  opened ; 
and  as  I  with  the  one  that  entered  into  rest  came  up  to  it,  he  stepped 
in ;  but  as  I  was  about  to  enter,  I  stepped  into  the  body. 


CHtfRUHAL    SPIRITUALISM  —  CHURCHIANIO.  177 

"  When  recovering  from  my  trance,  I  mentioned  the  names  of  these 
persons,  telling  how  I  saw  them  die,  and  which  of  them  entered  into 
rest.  I  said  to  my  mother,  Oh,  that  I  had  made  one  step  further,  then 
I  should  not  have  come  back  to  earth.  After  telliog  them  what  I  had 
to  say,  I  desired  them  to  say  no  more,  for  I  still  heard  the  voices  and 
melodious  songs  of  praises,  and  longed  for  my  final  change. 

"  After  I  told  them  of  the  death  of  the  three  men,  they  sent  to  see 
if  it  was  so,  and  when  the  messenger  returned,  he  told  them  they  were 
all  dead,  and  died  in  their  rooms,  &c.;  as  1  had  told  them.  Upon 
hearing  it,  I  fell  into  tears,  and  said,  Oh,  Lord,  wouldst  thou  hadst  kept 
me  and  sent  him  back  that  was  in  pain,  (for  he  seemed  one  of  the  lost.) 
The  third  was  a  colored  man  belonging  to  the  widow  Kearney,  whom  I 
saw  die  in  the  brick  kitchen,  and  while  they  were  laying  his  corpse  on 
a  board,  his  head  fell  out  of  their  hands,  which  I  plainly  saw,  with  other 
circumstances  j  for  remember,  the  ivalh  were  no  hindrance  to  my  sight. 
Though  the  negro's  body  was  black,  his  soul  was  clothed  in  white,  which 
filled  me  with  joy,  as  it  appeared  to  me  a  token  of  his  acceptance  with 
God.  *  *  55^  Yet  I  was  not  permitted  to  see  him  fully  enter  into 
rest;  but  just  as  I  thought  myself  entering,  I  came  into  the  body 
again. 

"  Sometime  after  my  recovery,  the  widow  Kearney,  the  mistress  of 
the  colored  man,  sent  for  me,  and  inquired  whether  I  thought  departed 
spirits  knew  one  another  ?  I  answered  in  the  affirmative,  telling  her  I 
saw  her  negro  man  die  whilst  I  was  lying  as  a  corpse.  She  then  asked 
me  where  did  he  die  ?  I  told  her  in  her  brick  kitchen,  between  the 
jamb  of  the  chimney  and  the  wall ;  and  when  they  took  him  from  the 
bed  to  lay  him  on  the  board,  his  head  slipped  from  their  hands.  She 
then  said.  So  it  did !  She  then  asked  if  I  could  tell  where  they  laid 
him.  I  informed  her,  between  the  back  door  and  street  door.  She 
said  she  remembered  that  it  ivas  so,  and  was  satisfied,  having  reason  to 
believe  what  she  had  often  thought,  that  departed  spirits  knew  each 
other  in  heaven. 

"  These  men,  upon  inquiring,  were  found  to  die  at  the  very  time  I 
saw  them,  and  all  the  circumstances  of  their  death  were  found  to  be 
exactly  as  I  related  them.  As  some  may  desire  to  know  how  or  in 
what  shape  these  that  were  dead  appeared  to  me,  I  would  say  that  they 
appeared  each  in  a  complete  hody,  which  I  take  to  be  the  spiritual  body, 
separated  from  the  earthly,  sinful  body.  They  were  also  clothed — the 
two  that  entered  into  rest,  in  white,  and  the  other,  who  was  seemingly 
cast  ofi",  had  his  garment  somewhat  white,  hut  spotted.  I  saw  also  the 
bodies  in  which  each  of  them  lived  when  upon  earth,  and  also  how  they 
were  laid  out;  but  my  own  body  I  did  not  see.  The  reason  why  I 
neither  saw  my  own  body,  nor  entered  fully  into  rest,  I  take  to  be  this : 
that  my  soul  was  not  quite  separated  from  my  hody,  as  the  others  were ; 
though  it  was  so  far  separated  as  to  permit  my  seeing  those  things,  and 
Hearing  their  songs  of  praise  and  thanksgiving.  Some  may  think  the 
d<3ad  know  not  each  other.  These  I  would  refer  to  the  Scriptures—- 
12 


178  DOCTRINES   OF   SPIRITUALISTS. 

asking,   did    not    Dives   know    both   Abraham    and    Lazarus^   though 
afar  off?" 

Friend  Say  s  journeyings  in  the  spirit-world,  while  out  of 
the  body,  are  exceedingly  valuable,  because  occurring  long 
previous  to  the  modern  spiritual  manifestations ;  and,  among 
the  Quakers,  a  people  distinguished  for  integrity,  simplicity, 
and  devotion  to  religious  convictions. 

We  are  privileged  with  the  personal  acquaintance  of 
several  prominent  media,  who,  becoming  entranced,  leave 
(save  by  sympathetic  and  magnetic  relations)  their  bodies, 
and,  traveling  with  their  spirit-guides  through  the  heavenly 
spheres,  observe  the  scenery  and  listen  to  celestial  music. 
Such  experiences  bless  the  partakers  beyond  all  blessing. 

Paul,  referring  to  himself,  according  to  Biblical  exposi- 
tions, says  he  knew  a  man  who  was  "  caught  up  to  the  third 
heaven,"  where  he  *'  heard  unspeakable  words,"  and  "  whether 
he  was  in  the  body,  or  out  of  the  body,"  at  the  time,  he  could 
not  determine.  With  those  accustomed  to  cite  apostolic 
authority,  this  scriptural  language  ought,  at  least,  to  favor- 
ably commend  the  idea  of  mortals  leaving  their  bodies.  The 
phraseology  of  Paul  certainly  implies  that  the  spiritual  man 
may  be  temporarily  released  from  its  corporeal  relations  in  a 
degree,  that  it  may  ascend  to  ''the  third  heaven  ;"  that  is, 
the  third  sphere  of  spirit-life.  The  "  unspeakable  words  " 
were,  doubtless,  the  sublime  utterances  of  an  ancient  Semitic 
Beer,  long  summering  in  the  upper  kingdoms  of  glory,  the 
vernacular  of  which  even  the  scholarly  Gentile  Apostle  was 
not  acquainted.  The  past  re-lives  in  the  present,  and  tlie 
Hving  now  proiFers  the  mystic  key  that  unlocks  and  cor- 
roborates much  of  the  past. 

John  Wesley,  high  in  the  coronal  region,  gifted  with  full 
Bpirituality,  and  trained  under  the  paternal  roof  to  hear 
startling  accounts  of  apparitions,  clothed  in  vestures  seamlesQ 
and  glittering,  confessed  to  the  spiritual  as  naturally  us 
flowers  turn  to  the  sunshine  in  May  mornings.  The  R^v. 
Samuel  We^ey,  father  of  the  celebrated  John  Wesley, 
J 


CHURCHAL    SPIRITUALISM  —  CHURCHIANIC.  179 

founder  of  Methodism,  while  rector  of  Epworth,  Engltfind, 
in  1716,  heard  noises  and  rappings  several  months  in  his 
residence,  keeping  a  detailed  account  of  them. 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Hoole,  of  Haxey,  visiting  Mr.  Wesley,  wrote 
thus  concerning  the  mysterious  sounds:  "  After  supper  and 
prayers,  we  all  went  up  stairs,  and  as  we  were  standing 
round  the  fire,  in  the  east  chamber,  something  began  knock- 
ing just  on  the  other  side  of  the  wall,  on  the  chimney-piece, 
as  with  a  key.  Presently  the  knocking  was  under  our  feet. 
We  went  down — he  with  hope,  I  with  fear.  As  soon  as  we 
were  in  the  kitchen,  the  sound  was  above  us  in  the  room  we 
had  left.  Mr.  Wesley  spoke  to  it.  *  *  *  *  Soon  after 
it  knocked  at  the  window,  and  changed  its  sounds  into  one 
like  planing  boards." 

As  to  the  proceeding  causes  of  these  disturbances,  the 
learned  commentator,  Pr.  Clarke,  has  the  following : — "  For 
a  considerable  time  all  the  family  believed  it  to  be  a  trick; 
but  at  last  they  were  all  satisfied  it  was  something  super- 
natural." *  *  *  a  gome  thought  it  was  a  messenger  of 
Satan."  *  *  *  u  ^^s.  Wesley's  opinion  was  dififerent 
from  all  the  rest,  and  was  probably  the  most  correct.  She 
supposed  that  these  noises  and  disturbances  portended  the 
death  of  her  brother,  then  abroad  in  the  East  India  Com- 
pany's service.  This  gentleman  *  *  *  suddenly  disappeared 
and  was  never  heard  from  more." 

Having  had  unquestionable  evidence  of  mysterious  agencies 
and  spirit  manifestations,  in  the  tender  years  of  childhood, 
and  personally  blessed  with  some  of  the  '*  gifts  "  promised  to 
believers,  John  Wesley,  all  through  his  evangelizing  career, 
noted  and  recorded  cases  of  spirit-power  and  premonition  in 
his  Journals  and  the  "  Arminian  Magazine." 

"  He  healed  the  sick,"  writes  a  distinf^uished  English  author,  "  by 
prayer  and  laying  on  of  hands.  He  and  some  others  joined  in  prayer 
over  a  man  who  was  not  expected  to  live  till  morning;  he  was  speech- 
less, senseless,  and  his  pulse  was  gone.  Before  they  ceased,  his  senses 
and  speech  returned.  He  recovered ;  and  Wesley  says  they  v>\o  choose 
to  account  for  the  fact  by  natural  causes  have  his  free  leave  :  he  sayg 
it  was  the  power  of  Prod."     (Vol.  ii.  p.  385.> 


180  DOCTRINBt    OF   SPIRITUALISTS. 

"  Wesle^,'  believed  with  Luther,  that  devils — demons — produced  dis- 
ease and  bodily  hurts ;  that  epilepsy  and  insanity  often  proceeded 
from  demon  influence.  He  declared  that,  if  he  gave  up  faith  in 
witchcraft,  he  must  give  up  the  Bible.  When  asked  whether  he  had 
himself  seen  a  ghost,  he  replied,  '  No;  nor  have  I  ever  seen  a  murder; 
but  unfortunately  I  am  compelled  to  believe  that  murders  take  place 
almost  every  day,  in  one  place  or  another.'  Warburton  attacke*^ 
Wesley's  belief  in  miraculous  cures  and  expulsion  of  evil  spirits ;  but 
Wesley  replied  that  what  he  had  seen  with  his  own  eyes,  he  was  bound 
to  believe ;  the  bishop  could  believe  or  not,  as  he  pleased." 

Eev.  Mr.  Fletcher,  of  Wesley's  time,  records  many  striking 
instances  of  angelic  interposition.  One  related  to  his  own 
bathing  in  the  Rhine;  when  sinking,  he  remained  under 
water  twenty  minutes,  and  yet  was  restored.  Some  would 
say,  "  Why,  this  is  a  miracle  !'*  "  Undoubtedly,''  observes  Mr. 
Wesley.  "  It  was  not  a  natural  event,  but  a  work  wrought 
above  the  power  of  nature,  probably  by  the  ministry  of 
angels." 

Southey  mentions  the  psychological  tendencies  and  expe- 
riences of  Rev.  Thomas  Walsh,  a  Wesleyan  preacher.  "  He 
was  sometimes  found  in  so  deep  a  reverie,  that  he  appeared 
to  have  ceased  to  breathe;  there  was  something  resembling 
splendor  on  his  countenance,  and  other  circumstances  seemed 
to  attest  his  communion  with  the  spiritual  world."  This 
corresponds  to  the  state  of  many  of  our  trance  speakers. 
During  the  sermons,  and  especially  in  the  prayer  circles  of 
the  Wesleys,  the  more  susceptible  became  sufficiently  spirit- 
ually influenced  to  manifest  symptoms  of  violent  spasms  and 
convulsions.  Similarly  wrought  upon  in  our  day,  Methodists 
have  "  fallen  with  the  power,"  and  seen  visions — all  phases 
of  Spiritualism. 

The  first  Methodist  preachers,  threatened,  persecuted,  were 
afterwards  cursed  and  stoned  for  their  heresies  and  zeal  in 
kindling  the  fading  fires  of  religion.  The  English  Church 
denouncing  them  as  "  disturbers  of  the  peace,  and  seducers," 
compelbd  them,  if  preaching  at  all,  to  hold  their  services  in 
lanes,  streets  and  groves.     They  were  humble  during  this 


CHURCHAL    SPIRITUALISM  —  CHURCHIANIC.  181 

period  of  their  history,  and  spiritually  minded.  Prophet- 
mantles  rested  upon  them.  Now,  becominpj  popular,  proud, 
sectarian  and  pe.^secuting,  they  are  suffering  an  eclipse  of 
faith — a  deserved  decline.  As  ye  "  mete,"  said  Jesus,  "  it 
shall  be  measui  3d  to  you  again."  As  a  denomination, 
angelic  ministers  and  spiritual  gifts  have  left  them.  The 
shell  is  thickening.  The  soul-fires  of  their  primitive  forces 
are  dying  under  church  formalisms  and  mocking  sanctities. 

Dr.  Adam  Clarke,  the  profound  linguist  and  Biblical 
Methodist  annotator,  accepted  the  central  thought  connected 
with  Spiritualism — a  present  communion  with  departed 
spirits.  Commenting  upon  the  woman  of  Endor,  Saul, 
Samuel  and  that  upper  world  peopled  by  "  various  orders 
of  spirits,"  he  writes,  in  his  Com.  p.  299,  vol.  ii. : 

"  I  believe  there  is  a  supernatural  and  spiritual  world,  in  which 
human  spirits,  both  good  and  bad,  live  in  a  state  of  consciousness. 

"  I  believe  that  any  of  these  spirits  may,  according  to  the  order  of 
God,  in  the  laws  of  their  place  of  residence,  have  intercourse  with  this 
world,  snd  become  visible  to  mortals. 

"  I  believe  Samuel  did  actually  appear  to  Saul,  and  thai  he  was  sent 
by  the  especial  mercy  of  God,  to  warn  this  infatuated  king  of  his 
approaching  death." 

These  are  unequivocal  expressions  of  belief.  If,  as  Dr. 
Clarke  affirms,  the  risen  Samuel  *'  actually  appeared  to 
Saul;"  if  the  ascended  Moses  and  Elias  *' talked  with  Jesus" 
in  the  presence  of  Peter,  John  and  James ;  if  spiritual  beings, 
denominated  '*  Angels,"  "Men  of  God,"  *' Men,"  held  con- 
scious intercourse  with  earth's  inhabitants  during  several 
thousand  years  of  Scriptural  history — why  not  now  ?  Is  God 
mutable?  Have  deific  laws  changed?  Has  the  "door"  John 
saw  opened  in  heaven  been  shut  and  barred  ?  Did  Jesus  fal- 
sify when  ye  said,  "Lo!  I  am  with  you  alway  unto  the  end  of 
the  world  ? "  This  beautiful  belief  in  spirit  intercourse,  cher- 
ished by  Dr.  Clarke,  so  expanded  his  nature,  that  he  clearly 
enunciated  the  doctrine  of  progression,  and  the  final  resto 
ration  of  all  souls  to  holiness  and  happiness.  The  thought 
thrilled   him   with    ecstasy.     Annotating  upon    a  verse  in 


182  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

Romans,  he  exclaimed — "Death  shall  be  conquered;  hell 
disappointed;  the  devil  confounded,  and  sin  totally  de- 
stroyed !  "  Writing  of  the  passage  of  the  apostle  John — 
"God  is  love" — he  says,  "God  is  an  infinite  fountain  of 
benevolence  and  beneficence  to  every  human  being.  He 
hates  nothing  that  he  has  made.  He  cannot  hate  because 
he  is  love.  *  *  *  *  jje  has  made  no  human  being  for 
perdition ;  nor  ever  rendered  it  impossible,  by  any  neces- 
sitating decree,  for  any  fallen  soul  to  find  mercy.  *  *  * 
Love  seems  to  be  the  essence  of  the  Divine  nature,  and  all 
other  attributes  to  be  only  modifications  of  this." 

Ann  Lee,  honored  by  her  admirers  with  the  appellations, 
"  Sainted  Mother,"  and  "  Sister,"  overshadowed  by  angels 
of  purity,  and  enlightened  by  the  descent  of  celestial  influ- 
ences, received  her  heavenly  commission  in  1758,  near 
Manchester,  England.  Her  visions  were  remarkable;  her 
prophecies,  oracles.  The  physical  manifestations,  relating 
to  herself  and  adherents,  consisted  of  dancing,  trembling, 
whirling,  and  speaking  with  tongues.  These  exercises  and 
spiritual  gifts  called  down  upon  them  the  hostility  of  the 
Church.  Priests  and  magistrates,  who  have  ever  sought  to 
gag  the  truth,  dungeon  conscience,  and  impeach  the  induc- 
tions of  science,  charged  them  with  disorder  and  Sabbath- 
breaking.  The  religious  authorities  slandered,  fined  and 
imprisoned  them. 

In  1774,  inspired  by  the  "  Christ  of  the  new  order,"  she 
received  a  revelation  to  emigrate  to  America.  A  few  pure- 
purposed,  loving  souls  clustered  around  her  as  a  central 
teacher  directed  by  angel  ministers. 

This  new  church — the  "Shakers" — much  resembles  the 
Essenes  of  Philo's  time.  The  Kazarene  had  but  three 
hundred  followers  when  martyred  upon  Calvary.  The 
increase  of  the  Shaker  fraternity  has  not  been  rapid  :  but  is 
permanent.  Holding  that  God  is  dual,  eternal,  Father  and 
Mother  in  deific  manifestations,  they  practically  teach  the 
strict  equality  of  the  sexes.     "First  pure,  then  peaceable," 


CHURCHAL    SPIRITUALISM  —  CHURCHIANIC.  183 

thej  profess  to  live  in  the  "  resurrection  state/'  and  preach 
to  those  "  without " — the  Gentiles — to  raise  few  and  better 
children.  They  all  believe  in  spirit  manifestations  and 
revelations. 

Elder  F.  W.  Evans  wrote  Robert  Owen,  in  1856,  that, 
**  seven  years  previous  to  the  advent  of  Spiritualism,  the 
Shakers  had  predicted  its  rise  and  progress,  precisely  as 
they  have  occurrei  ,  and  that  the  Shaker  order  is  the 
great  medium  betwixt  this  world  and  the  world  of  spirits. 
*  *  *  Physical  manifestations,  visions,  revelations, 
prophecies,  and  gifts  of  various  kinds,  of  which  voluminous 
records  are  kept,  and,  indeed,  *  divers  operations,  but  all  of 
the  same  spirit,'  were  as  common  among  us  as  gold  in 
California." 

Elder  J.  S.  Prescott,  connected  with  the  community  near 
Cleveland,  Ohio,  made  a  similar  statement  to  us  during  the 
session  of  the  4th  IsTational  Convention  of  Spiritualists.  Mr. 
Dixon,  an  English  writer  of  considerable  note,  visiting 
Elder  Evans,  of  Mount  Lebanon,  during  his  American  tour, 
wrote  thus  of  the  Shaker  doctrines  : 

"  To  this  dogma  of  the  existence  of  a  world  of  spirits — unseen  by  us, 
visible  to  them — the  disciples  of  Mother  Ann  most  strictly  hold.  In 
this  respect,  they  agree  with  the  Spiritualists ;  indeed  they  pride  them- 
selves on  having  foretold  the  advent  of  this  '  Spiritual  distxirhance  in  the 
American  mind/  Frederick  tells  me — from  his  anj^els — that  the  reiern 
of  this  Spiritualistic  movement  '  is  only  in  its  opening  phase !  it  will 
sweep  through  Europe,  through  the  World,  as  it  is  now  sweeping 
through  America ;  it  is  based  on  facts,  representing  an  active,  though 
an  unseen  force/ 

"  These  Shaker  communities  all  claim  to  be  of  spiritual  origin  ! — to 
have  spiritual  direction  ! — to  receive  spiritual  protection  !  Hundreds 
of  spiritual  mediums  are  developed  throughout  the  eighteen  societies. 
In  truth,  all  the  members  in  greater  or  less  degree  are  mediums. 

"  Spiritualism, '^  he  continues,  "  in  its  onward  progress,  will  go 
through  the  same  three  degrees  in  the  world  at  large.  As  yet  it  is  only 
in  the  beginning  of  the  first  degree,  even  in  the  United  States.  It  will 
continue  until  every  man  and  woman  upon  the  earth  is  convinced  that 
there  is  a  G.">d — an  immortality — a  spiritual,  no  less  than  a  natural 
world;  and  the  possibility  of  a  social,  intelligent  communication 
between  their  inh;)bitants  respectively,"  &c.,  &c. 


184  DOCTRINES    OF   SPIRITUALISTS. 

Basing  our  opinion  upon  reliable  testimony,  these  Shaker 
communities  constitute  a  body  of  the  neatest,  healthiest,  the 
most  pure-minded  and  kind-hearted  souls  of  earth.  Cer- 
tainly they  are  the  only  people  on  this  continent,  who  have 
successfully  maintained,  for  more  than  seventy  years,  a 
system  of  rational  living,  one  of  the  fundamental  principles 
of  which  is  the  apostolic  community  of  property. 

John  Murray,  the  father  of  American  Qniversalisms,  born 
in  England,  persecuted  for  his  beautiful  heresy  in  his  native 
country,  was  a  Spiritualist.  The  birth  of  all  great  religious 
thoughts  have  their  origin  always  in  some  spiritual  agency 
It  was  so  with  Murrav. 

As  early  evidence  of  his  mediumship  and  control  by  spirits, 
when  but  two  years  old,  at  his  baptism,  he  articulated 
"  Amen " — the  first  word  he  ever  spoke.  Clairvoyant,  he 
saw  a  spirit — his  Eliza — in  Il^ewgate  prison,  "  irradiating 
the  walls,"  before  whom  he,  in  his  sorrow,  prostrated  him- 
self, and,  inspired  by  her  sweet  magnetism,  found  relief. 
Speaking  of  this  happy  visitation  in  an  hour  of  deep 
anguish,  he  said:  "My  soul  became  calm,  and  although 
every  hope  from  this  world  was  extinct  in  my  bosom,  yet  I 
believed  I  should  be  the  better  able  to  accommodate  myself 
to  whatever  sufferings  the  Almighty  might  think  proper  to 
inflict.'' 

When  about  to  leave  England  for  America,  having  served 
his  time  in  prison  for  heresy,  and  feeling  disconsolate  over 
the  departure  from  the  scenes  and  associations  of  his  home, 
he  heard  the  voice  of  a  guardian  spirit,  saying,  "  Be  of 
good  cheer.  *  *  *  Be  not  afraid  when  thou  passest 
through  the  waters;  I  will  be  with  thee,  fear  no  evil!"  *  * 

But  the  most  interesting  feature  of  his  spiritual  experi- 
ences,   showing   how   well    and   wisely   the   messengers   of 
heaven   direct  even  life's  events,  for  the  consummation  of 
divine   purposes,  is   delineated   in   his   interview  with  Mr 
Potter,  after  his  arrival  in  America. 


CHURCHAL   SPIRITUALISM  —  CHURCHIANIC.  18 J 

By  angel  direction,  Mr.  Potter  was  impressed  to  build  a 
meeting-house  in  the  woods  of  'New  Jersey,  under  the 
assurance  that  in  due  time  the  true  gospel  would  appear. 
Believing  in  the  holy  voice  that  appointed  him,  Mr.  Potter 
faithfully  built  his  house,  and  there  it  stood  for  years  a  mon- 
ument of  his  so-called  "  folly,"  in  the  estimation  of  his 
orthodox  neighbors,  who  taunted  him  about  his  *'  forth- 
coming  minister."  Are  the  winds,  too,  under  the  command 
of  spirits,  as  with  Jesus  on  the  sea  of  Tiberias  ?  They  tost 
that  vessel  into  the  intended  harbor,  and  Murray  was  thus 
brought  to  the  very  shore  where  lived  Mr.  Potter,  of  whom 
he  requested  a  fish  for  the  hungry  sailors. 

In  the  meanwhile,  the  moment  that  vessel  touched  the 
shore,  the  familiar  voice  of  the  angel,  who  ordered  the  house 
to  be  built,  spoke  in  his  ear  with  thrilling,  melting  cadence — 

"  There,  Potter,  in  that  vessel,  cast  away  on  that  shore,  is  the  preacher 
you  have  been  so  long  expecting ! '' 

Convicted,  believing,  nothing  wavering,  he  waited  the 
sequel,  his  heart  serene  with  the  love  which  the  angel- 
presence  inspired.  When  Mr.  Murray  came  up  to  the  door, 
asking  for  the  fish,  the  mystic  voice  that,  in  other  climes 
and  ages,  entranced  the  faithful  to  lofty,  sublime  deeds, 
was  heard  again — 

"  Potter,  this  is  the  man,  this  is  the  person,  whom  I  have  sent  to 
preach  in  your  house  ! '' 

Mr.  Murray,  astonished,  bewildered — for  he  had  resolved 
to  abandon  the  ministry  forever — persuaded,  entreated, 
prayed  to  be  absolved  from  the  task ;  but  no,  angel 
voices  spoke  to  him  in  his  nights  of  reflection;  and  the 
strange  circumstances  thus  developed,  showing  a  heavenly 
providential  overruling  of  tides  and  seasons,  all  crowded 
upon  him  with  the  afflatus  of  prophetic  divinity.  Yielding 
at  length  to  the  order  of  powers  above,  whose  forces  are 
law,   and  whose   influences    are    sunbeams   that  bud    and 


186  DOCTRINES   OF   SPIRITUALISTS. 

blossom  the  Jlowers  of  hope  under  tears  of  sorrow,  he 
buckled  on  the  armor  of  the  "  soldier  of  the  cross,"  waked 
up  the  slumbering  people  to  the  action  of  freer  thought  and 
character,  led  to  glorious  victory,  and,  departing,  left  a 
trailing  light  of  inspiration  that  has  flooded  deeper,  higher, 
broader,  till  all  the  land  is  under  the  auroral  baptism  now  of 
angels. 

When  the  heavenly  inspirations  of  the  faithful  Murray 
and  his  self-sacrificing  coadjutors,  crystalizing  into  a  creed, 
were  chilled  by  formularies,  interpreted  by  fossiliferous 
Conventions,  stultified  by  straining  after  "  ecclesiastic  re- 
spectability," the  angels  of  progress  left  the  denomination  to 
wither,  shrivel,  die !  '  Tis  God's  voice  to  every  organic 
body — grow  or  perish !  Universalism  was  a  stepping-stone 
from  a  broad  Protestant  faith  to  demonstrated  immortality. 
The  good  it  had  is  blossoming  and  seeding  into  Spiritualism. 

The  tendency  of  all  Christian  sectarisms  is  downward, 
demanding  faith  without  evidence,  and  saying  to  the  aspi 
rational  soul — "  thus  far  and  no  farther."  The  followers  of 
all  religious  iconoclastic  chieftains  have,  in  after  years,  fallen 
far  below  their  original  standard-bearers.  The  Lutherans 
are  per  se  sectarians.  Methodists,  degenerating  from  Wesley, 
Whitefield,  Fletcher,  as  a  church,  virtually  now  deny  all  spir- 
itual gifts  and  communications.  Calvinists,  condemning 
the  barbarities  of  Rome,  turned  inquisitors  and  persecuted 
dissenting  souls  unto  death.  The  Puritans,  leaving  England, 
settling  at  Plymouth,  and  founding  the  New  England  colo- 
nies, fled  professedly  from  persecution,  seeking  a  place  to 
worship  God  according  to  the  dictates  of  conscience,  with 
the  ulterior  purpose  of  christianizing  (?)  the  Indians! 
Settled,  they  commenced  robbing  those  Aborigines,  enslav- 
ing their  women  and  children,  and  visiting  upon  them  inhu- 
man and  self-degrading  cruelties.  They  plundered-  the 
towns  of  the  natives ;  paid  bribes  to  assassinate  Indian 
chiefs;  burned  hundreds  of  red  men  alive — and  all  in  the 
name  of  Christ,  the  "  Prince  of  Peace !  *' 


CQITRCHAL   SPIRITUALISM  —  CHURCHIANIC.  187 

A  prominmt  New  England  author  bears  the  following 
testimony  : 

"  Their  ablest  and  favorite  divines  declared  that  the  burning  ')f  four 
hundred  Indians  at  once,  mostly  women  and  children,  seemed  a  sweet 
savor  to  God,  while  they  admitted  that  it  was  awful  to  see  their  blood 
running  and  quenching  the  violence  of  the  burning  wood.  *  *  They 
turned  upon  the  Quakers.  They  imposed  heavy  fines  for  hearing  them 
speak.  They  passed  blue-laws.  *  *  *  They  flogged,  inhumanly, 
women  and  children.  They  put  them  in  prison  and  whipped  them 
daily.  They  cut  off'  their  ears.  They  bored  their  tongues  with  red- 
hot  irons.  They  hung  men,  women  and  children  as  witches,  and  con- 
tinued it  for  fifty  years.  *  *  *  They  banished  Roger  Williams. 
They  drove  women  and  helpless  children,  under  severest  penalties,  to 
seek  protection  among  the  savages,  (where  they  were  all  murdered) 
because  they  diff'ered  with  them  on  metaphysical  divinity.  *  *  As 
late  as  1740,  they  enacted  the  most  barbarous  laws  against  heretical 
thinkers,  and  enforced  the  Saybrook  Platform.'^ 

Such  was — such  is,  though  modified  by  the  genius  and 
intelligence  of  the  age,  creedal  Christianity,  devoid  of  spirit- 
uality—  formal  Christianity,  unbaptized  of  Spiritualism. 
Chaff  without  wheat!  shell  without  substance!  a  swoUa? 
body  without  the  spirit  that  giveth  life  ! 

**Far  from  the  golden  shores  of  fate 
I  gaze  across  the  past; 
Forever  on  life's  dial-plate 
The  shade  is  backward  cast." 
*        ♦        *        *        * 

*'£re  long  a  fairer  morn  shall  rise, 
With  purer  air  and  brighter  skies, 
When  force  shall  lay  his  scepter  down 
And  strength  shall  abdicate  its  crown, 
And  truth  incarnate  sway  the  race, 
With  mildest  power  and  tenderest  grace. '^ 
******* 

**  Ring  out  the  darkness  of  the  land, 
Ring  in  the  Christ  that  is  to  be." 


y 


ECTURE    YI 


SEGyVLENTARY       S 


ENTARY       bPIRITUALISM. 


LhAPTEI^   XIX. 


THE  PRELUDE. 


'•  Through  the  harsh  noises  of  our  day 
A  lev,  sweet  prelude  finds  its  way ; 
Through  clouds  of  doubt  and  creeds  of  fear 
A  light  is  breaking  calm  and  clear. 

That  angel  song,  now  low  and  far 
Ere  long  shall  sound  from  star  to  star  I 
That  light,  the  breaking  day  which  tips 
The  golden-spired  Apocalypse." 

Circles  are  the  higbsst  symbols.  There  are  probably  no 
straight-line  motions  in  the  universe.  Those  seeming  such 
are  on  a  scale  so  vast  the  curve  cannot  be  perceived.  Frag- 
ments are  all  parts  of  circular  bodies,  as  a  piece  of  granite 
rock  is  a  part  of  those  primitive  formations  that  encircle  the 
earth.  Atoms  gyrate  upon  their  axes  and  follow  the  line  of 
their  strongest  attractions.  Things  move  in  spirals,  and 
generally  with  the  sun,  from  left  to  right.  Sea-shells  are 
built  up  spirally.  Vines  ascend  forest  trees  spirally.  Par- 
ticles of  steel  flying  toward  a  magnet  move  spirally.  This 
law,  with  few  exceptions,  applies  to  atoms,  worlds,  systems, 
civilizations,  and  all  those  historic  cycles  of  ever-recurring 
spiritual  epochs  and  eras  that  distinguish  antiquity. 

Progress  underlies  all  things,  and  Spiritualism,  though 
ever  majestic  in  its  past  windings,  may  be  compared  to  the 
ocean  waves   that  rise   and  fall.     It  has  had  its  mornings 

and  evenings  of  decline.     Its  careers  fleck  the  nights  and 

191 


192  DOCTRINES    OF   SPIRITUALISTS.      ' 

days  of  earth's  varied  revolutions  with  splendors  unspeakable , 
and  its  heaven-illumined  truths,  voiced  by  angelic  inspired 
chieftains,  have  rolled  in  solemn  grandeur  all  along  the 
sunlit  periods  of  the  half-buried  ages;  and  its  musical  echoes 
add  to  the  glories  of  the  nineteenth  centiny. 

Each  spiritual  wave,  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of  accel- 
erated motion,  rose  above  the  preceding,  bearing  the  masses 
higher  up  the  altitudes  of  wisdom.  The  impetus  was  greater ; 
the  spray  from  the  wave  more  glittering;  the  principles 
involved,  coupled  with  its  holy  teachings,  were,  during  each 
succeeding  period,  more  widely  diffused. 

Under  some  name  and  in  some  form  Spiritualism,  as 
herein  demonstrated,  has  constituted  the  basic  foundation, 
and  been  the  motive  force  of  all  religions  in  their  incipient 
stages.  The  Spiritualism  of  to-day  differs  from  that  of  five 
thousand  years  since  only  in  the  better  understanding  of  its 
philosophy,  the  general  concession  of  its  naturalness  and 
its  wider  dissemination  through  the  different  grades  of 
society.  It  has  been  and  is  God's  visible  seal  of  love  to  all 
climes  and  ages. 

The  spirit-world  is  the  world  of  causes;  this  of  effects. 
Objective  entities  are  but  the  projections  of  ethereabzed 
spirit-substances.  Inventions  relating  to  industrial  activities, 
or  the  spiritual  exaltation  of  the  races,  have  their  first  birtb 
in  the  inner  life.  All  great  projects  for  the  moral  redemp- 
tion of  humanity,  primarily  conceived  in  the  upper  deeps 
of  infinity,  are  inflowed  from  immortal  minds  to  receptive 
mortals  by  the  law  of  influx.  These  mediumized  souls, 
impressionally  catching  the  shadowy  dim-defined  plans, 
fashion  them  into  forms ;  or  perhaps  partially  constructing, 
push  them  out  into  the  sensuous  world.  As  spirit  moulds 
and  takes  on  form,  so  wisdom  ceaselessly  descends  from  the 
heavens. 

Cognizant  of  a  rising  spiritual  wave.  Congresses  of  Angels 
devised  the  noble  project  of  laying  the  foundation-stone  of 
this  new  Temple,  majestic,  cosmopolitan,  and  strikingly 
3ublime,  in  America — land  of  free  thought,  free  speech,,  free 


PRELUDE.  193 


press — land  where  the  people,  conscious  of  their  God-given 
rights,  and  cringing  before  no  cowled  priests,  feel  themselves 
sovereigns — "  kings  and  priests  unto  God." 

Premonitions   and    prophecies   are   announcing    heralds, 
breathing 


A  mystical  lore, 


And  coming  events  cast  their  shadows  before." 

The  record  stands  undisputed,  that  Swedenborg,  just 
before  his  departure  to  spirit-life,  in  1772,  prophesied  that, 
in  about  eighty  years,  wonderful  phenomena  of  a  spiritual 
nature  would  occur  on  the  earth.  The  four  score  years 
expired  in  1852. 

A  young  man,  residing  in  Western  New  York,  1836,  and 
other  individuals  in  different  localities,  examining  the  merits 
of  Mesmerism,  fell  into  trance  conditions,  disclosing  the  fact, 
that  within  twelve  or  fourteen  years  a  remarkable  book 
would  be  published,  the  contents  of  which  would  not  be  as 
startling  as  the  source  from  whence  it  originated.  In  about 
eleven  years,  "  Nature's  Divine  Revelations "  was  dictated 
by  spirits  through  A.  J.  Davis,  in  his  clairvoyant  state,  and 
issued  from  the  press. 

In  1835,  and  several  years  thereafter,  Wm.  Miller  and 
adherents,  were  impressed  with  great  impending  changes, 
denominated  "  the  end  of  the  world  and  the  second  coming 
of  Christ  to  judgment."  They  interpreted  the  "word"  of 
the  Scriptures  literally,  thus  confounding  the  personal  with 
the  spiritual  coming.  The  blunder  was  fatal  to  the  progress 
of  the  sect.  The  end  of  the  theologic  world  of  creeds  and 
popish  dogmas  was  approaching,  and  Christ  was  speedily 
coming  as  a  spirit  spiritually  in  the  "clouds  of  heaven,  with 
all  his  holy  angels  with  him."  These  "  holy  angels  "  were 
the  ministering  spirits  with  whom  many  of  earth's  inhabitants 
now  hold  converse. 

About  this  period  immortalized  spirits,  originally  from 
India,  China,  Persia,  European  countries,  and  American  In- 
dians, visited  the  various  Shaker  communities  of  the  country, 
13 


194  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

and  controlling  the  more  mediumistic  members,  "  spoke  in 
tongues,"  prophesied,  and  gave  remarkable  communications 
relative  to  the  opening  of  the  *' seals,"  and  the  descent  of 
spiritual  powers  and  gifts  to  the  "  world's  people."  Earth 
and  heaven  abounded  in  signs  of  an  approaching  new  era. 

In  1846,  some  two  or  three  years  before  the  faintest  trans- 
latable echo  from  the  summer-land  had  reached  an  American 
ear,  A.  J.  Davis  stated,  and  it  stands  recorded  in  his  "Divine 
Revelations,"  (p.  175,)  that  the  shining  intelligences  of  the 
second  sphere  of  existence  were  soon  to  hold  tangible  com- 
munion with  the  people  of  earth.  These  were  his  prophetic 
words — "  It  is  a  truth  that  the  spirits  of  the  higher  spheres 
commune  with  persons  in  the  body  by  influx,  although 
they  are  unconscious  of  the  fact.  This  truth  will  ere  long 
present  itself  in  the  form  of  a  living  demonstration.  *  * 
*  *  And  the  world  will  hail  with  delight  the  ushering 
in  of  the  era!  " 

*'Why  come  not  spirits  from  the  realms  of  glory 
To  visit  earth,  as  in  the  days  of  old — 
The  times  of  ancient  writ  and  sacred  story  ? 

Is  heaven  more  distant  ?  or  has  earth  grown  cold  T 

To  Bethlehem's  air  was  their  last  anthem  given 
When  other  stars  before  the  One  grew  dim? 

Was  their  last  presence  known  in  Peter's  prison, 
Or  where  exulting  martyrs  raised  the  hymn?  " 


y 


ECTURE    YII 


ODERN        3PIR^f~-UALISM. 


pHAPTEI^   XX. 


SPIRIT  PHENOMENA. 


"He  who,  outside  of  pure  mathematics,  pronounces  the  word 
impossible,  lacks  prudence/* — Arago. 

"  The  Angel  of  the  Lord  descended  from  heaven  and  rolled  back  the 
stone  from  the  door  and  sat  upon  it/^ — Matthew. 

"  Peter,  sleeping  between  two  soldiers,  bound  with  chains,  the 
keepers  at  the  door  of  the  prison  !  the  Angel  of  the  Lord  came  and 
smote  him,  and  the  chains  fell  from  his  hands. 

"  Passing  the  first  and  second  wards  and  coming  to  an  iron  gate,  it 
opened  of  its  own  accord,  and  thej  went  out. 

''  When  Peter  knocked  at  the  door  of  the  gate;  a  damsel  came,  who 
knowing  his  voice  opened  the  door  with  gladness,  and  returning  told 
them  Peter  stood  at  the  gate. 

"  They  said  to  her,  thou  art  mad.  *  *  *  *  It  is  his  angel. 
But  Peter  continued  knocking. 

"  When  they  had  opened  the  door  and  saw  him,  they  were 
astonished." — Acts. 

"  The  thing  that  hath  been,  is  that  which  .^Jiall  be,  and  that  which 
is  done,  is  that  which  shall  be  done." — Ecclesiastes. 

•'  Loved  ones  are  rapping  to-night  I 
Heaven  seems  not  far  away  ! 
Death's  sweeping  river  is  bright  I 
Soft  is  the  sheen  of  its  spray. 
Oh,  bid  them  welcome  in  garments  of  white 
To  hearts  that  are  pure  and  illumined  with  light." — ^Emma  Tuttle. 

The  rappings  ! — listen,  theologians!  The  "Rochester 
knockings  !  " — sweet  seolian-toned  echoes  from  spirit-lands 
in  demrnstration  of  immortality  ! 

197 


198  DOCTRINES   OF   SPIRITUALISTS. 

"  Behold,"  said  Jesus,  *'  I  stand  at  the  door  and  knock." 
That  apostolic  "  cloud  of  witnesses " — our  sainted  loved 
ones,  approaching  the  doors  of  our  understanding  through 
sounds,  dreams,  visions,  premonitions  and  inspirations,  plead 
for  recognition  and  admission  ! 

"  The  love  which  survives  the  tomb,"  says  Irving,  "  is  one 
of  the  noblest  attributes  of  the  soul." 

Golden  memories  are  undying.  Pure  love  is  immortal. 
The  bud  of  friendship  that  begins  to  bloom  on  earth,  bears 
precious  fruitage  in  heaven.  Holy  remembrances  call  the 
ascended  hither.  Death,  the  silent  key  that  unlocks  life's 
portal  to  let  earth-encoffined  spirits  up  one  step  higher, 
severs  no  sweet  attraction.  Sympathies  between  the  two 
worlds,  are  as  natural  as  between  the  two  continents.  The 
translated  mother  looks  down  lovingly  upon  her  weeping 
child.  Delicate  the  electric  table-touch — musical  the  "  rap  " 
— blessed  the  intelligent  response — sacred  the  message!  and 
happy  each  glory-bathed  soul,  who,  catching,  cherishes  the 
whisper-accents  breathed  from  those  angel  dwellers  upon  the 
shadowless  shores  of  immortality. 

Minute  the  initial  steps  of  all  great  movements!  How 
pale  the  thinkers  face,  standing  in  that  retired  mechanic's 
workshop!  He  paces  the  cinder-paved  floor  crazily,  while 
riveting  processes  are  being  adjusted  through  a  succession  of 
little  continuous  ''  raps."  Rivet  after  rivet  fastened — wheels 
poised — machinery  arranged,  and  lo!  steam  engines  bidding 
defiance  to  winds  and  waves — crossing  continents  and  white- 
nino-  oceans — dash  the  gifts  of  commerce  at  our  feet.  Robert 
Fulton,  inspired  by  inventors  of  the  better  land,  is  on  earth 
immortal ! 

Bouchard,  digging  in  1799,  in  the  fort  of  St.  Julian,  discov- 
ered the  Rosetta  stone  written  over  in  speaking  characters, 
epistolary,  hieroglyphic  and  symbolic.  This,  with  subse- 
quent discoveries,  equally  important,  led  to  a  full  verification 
of  the  historic  records  of  Herodotus.  These  figures  and 
hieroglyphs  carved  upon  Lydian  stones,  on  obelisks  and 
pyramids,  permitted  ancient  Egypt  to  tell  the  world,  in  her 


MODERN    SPIRITUALISM  —  SPIRIT    PUENOMENA.  199 

own  native  language,  of  prior  golden  ages,  putting  to  s' .ame 
the  boasted  civilizations  of  Greece  and  Rome. 

i^ewton,  on  a  summer's  afternoon,  saw  an  apple  drop  to  the 
earth.  It  was  an  effect.  Investigating,  studying  inductively, 
the  great  law  of  gravitation  flashed  upon  his  mind.  Ark- 
wright,  carefully  watching  the  vibratory  motions  of  a  cog  in 
a  wheel,  was  repaid  by  discovering  the  principles  of  a  new 
mechanical  law,  resulting  in  the  saving  of  labor  and  life. 
Franklin,  with  kite  and  string,  called  subtle  electric  fire- 
fluids  from  the  storm-clouds  above  him,  and  chaining  them 
to  machinery,  threw  an  eternal  truth  into  the  face  of  all  the 
sere-mantled  ages.  Now  telegraphic  wires  girdle  the  globe, 
and  words  from  Americans  to  Asians,  outfly  the  winds  and 
sunbeams.  Joshua,  Grecianized  into  Jesus,  awoke  to  outer 
conscious  life  in  a  Judean  "  manger."  Humble  and  unpro- 
pitious  the  advent!  But  there  lay  concealed  causes  destined 
to  shake  kingdoms,  and  give  practical  force  to  a  higher 
civilization.  Few  attend  the  birth  of  genius.  All  newly- 
conceived  truths  are  cradled  in  mangers.  No  age  appreciates 
the  martyr  souls  that  take  advanced  positions. 

The  riveting — then  the  engine  whose  motive  force  lies 
behind  the  gracefully  folding  sails  that  whiten  oceans;  the 
kite  and  silken  strings — then  telegraphic  communications 
belting  the  planet  with  burning  thoughts;  the  vacated 
manger  adjoining  Bethlehem — then  nations  and  swarming 
empires  bowing  to  the  "  cross  of  Christ;"  the  "  rappings  " 
near  Rochester,  the  heavens  opened — then  overjoyed  multi- 
tudes, shouting — See! — behold!  a  tangible  demonstration  of 
a  future  existence  ! 

This  has  ever  been  the  divine  formula  for  inaugurating 
new  dispensations.  God  was  not  in  the  whirlwind  bending 
Lebanon's  cedars;  but  in  the  "still  small  voice."  To 
inductive  plodders,  however,  the  more  potent  causes  em- 
ployed in  the  establishment  of  these  tidal  eras,  pass  unno- 
ticed, because  spiritual.  Scientists  deal  only  with  phenomena 
and  forms  of  substance.  They  see  mountains;  but  not  the 
hidden  volcanic  fires  that  rend  them.     They  discern  oaks  in 


200  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

the  distance;  but  not  the  electricity  that  shivers  them  in 
atoms.  They  behold  parlor  tables  move  without  visible 
contact;  yet  are  blind  to  those  potential  spirit-forces  con- 
nected with  the  motions.  Science  needs  spiritualizing.  The 
gods  playing  upon  the  harp-strings  of  unseen  causes,  ever 
conquer.     In  spirit-life,  wisely  to  plan  is  to  perfect. 

The  mediative  heralds  of  higher,  brighter  cycles — the 
standard-bearers  of  newly-conceived  truths,  bathing  their 
pale  foreheads  in  the  first  pearling  sprays  from  celestial 
fountains,  unappreciated,  persecuted,  pronounced  "  mad,'* 
banished  from  aristocratic  circles — ^generally  suffer  social 
martyrdom,  or  are  put  to  slow  torturous  deaths  by  the 
prevailing  "respectable"  conservatism  of  the  times. 

Reformers  of  all  ages,  whose  mystic  words  startled  the 
world,  and  whose  inspired  thoughts  streamed  like  pearls 
down  the  future,  unrecognized  by  Church  or  State,  were 
branded  "  infidels  !  "  But  the  future  did — will  do  justice  to 
such,  erecting  over  their  lifeless  remains  splendid  monu- 
ments, where  millions  each  spring  morning  shall  delight  to 
scatter  flowers  and  evergreens,  beautiful  emblems  of  a 
fadeless  immortality. 

When  the  philosophically  inclined  heard  of  these  phe- 
nomena, starting  almost  simultaneously  in  different  portions 
of  the  world,  they  earnestly  sought  the  producing  cause. 
This,  natural  to  cultured  Germans,  was  especially  praise- 
worthy in  Americans.  Truly  great  men  are  not  only  critical 
reasoners,  but  rigid  investigators  of  newly-announced  sub- 
jects or  sciences.  Theologic  darkness  trembles  at  every 
flash  of  advancing  light.  Bigots  and  moss-wreathed  clergy- 
men, fearing,  heard  in  those  gentle  tappings  from  loved 
ones,  only  ghostly  mutterings  of  the  devil.  Sectarists 
religiously  canned,  sealed  and  creed-encrusted,  cried  in 
tones  fearful  and  sepulchral — '^humbug!"  an  exclamation 
distinguishable  for  ponderous  lungs  and  liliputian  mentality. 
A  parrot  can  assume  grave  platitudes  and  mouth  the  word 
with  p^  )us  grace  ! 


MODERN    SPIRITUALISM — SPIRIT   PHENOMENA.  201 

Progress  daily  invites  to  fresh  feasts.  "Let  the  church 
take  care,"  says  Carlyle  *'when  God  lets  loose  a  great 
thought."  Inspiration,  art,  science,  theories,  discoveries, 
"  knockiiigs  !  "  each,  all^  the  results  of  hidden  spirit  forces, 
exert  their  legitimate  influences.  Nebulae — then  through 
methods  formative  and  systematic — worlds.  Cells,  combi- 
nations— then  orderly  systems.  Mappings — then  acknow- 
ledged angel  ministries  whispered  in  millions  of  home- 
circles — 


*' This  is  not  a  matter  of  to-day 

Or  yesterday,  but  hath  been  from  all  time 

And  none  hath  told  us  whence  it  comes,  or  how." 

Egypt  had  its  wierd  augural  staves  from  which  were 
elicited  meaning  sounds  rhythmic  with  melodies  of  immor- 
tality. The  spirit-pendulum,  mysterious  to  the  masses,  was 
employed  in  the  ancient  services  of  Hydromantia.  The 
alphabet  was  successfully  employed  by  the  initiated  few  in 
the  times  of  the  Emperor  Yalens.  Melancthon  mentions 
rappings  occurring  in  Germany  in  his  day. 

Though  mysterious  sounds  and  voices  of  deep  import  had 
been  heard  in  the  palmier  periods  of  the  Orient,  and  at 
brightning  intervals  for  hundreds  of  years,  in  different  Euro- 
pean countries,  as  historic  testimonies  and  the  older  British 
reviews  abundantly  prove ;  yet  it  remained  for  impulsive, 
inspirational  Americans  to  translate  (March,  1848)  those  dis- 
turbing forces  and  noises,  into  intelligible  communications. 

The  genius  of  our  institutions,  tending  to  the  widest 
individual  freedom,  had  ripened  the  intellectual  soil  of  the 
continent  for  a  rich  spiritual  seeding.  Spirits  were  to  be 
the  sowers.  John's  prophetic  angel  was  already  in  the  over- 
arching heavens,  waiting  to  preach  the  "  everlasting  gospel." 
The  seventh  trumpet  had  sounded.  The  time  had  come  for 
"  loosening  of  the  seals  of  the  book  of  life,"  that  a  future 
existence  might  no  longer  be  considered  a  matter  of  faith ; 
but  of  absolute  knowledge. 


202  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

As  the  Maries — "holy  women  of  Syria,  mediumistic  and 
intuitive — were  first  at  the  ITazarenean  tomb  to  triumph- 
antly announce — "  he  is  not  here,  but  risen  ;"  so  women  in  the 
initiatory  hour  of  the  spiritual  dispensation,  were  the  first  to 
construct  the  key,  and  devise  the  method,  for  understand- 
ingly  interpreting  the  fact,  that  a  blissful  converse  in  har- 
mony with  natural  law,  had  been  established  between  the 
two  worlds  of  conscious  existence, 

"  Tongues  broke  out  in  unknown  strains 
And  sung  surprising  grace  " — 

The  gates  of  heavenly  courts  ajar,  angels,  white-robed, 
and  baptized  in  the  silvery  dews  of  paradise,  re-appeared, 
opening  again  the  song  that  anciently  thrived  the  watching 
shepherd-souls  of  Syria — "  Peace  on  earth  and  good  will  to 


men.*' 


LhAPTEI\_   XXI, 


MEDIUMSHIP.* 


Sunlight  through  the  ether  of  space — electricity  through 
the  telegraphic  wire — steamers  through  the  waves  of  myriad 
waters — rivers  through  valleys — blood  through  veins  and 
arteries — mind  through  brain  !  All  principles,  indeed,  all 
forces,  are  mediative.  Our  organs,  our  senses,  our  faculties, 
are  media  of  life,  of  love,  of  thought.  Mediumship  inter- 
permeates  and  interlines  all  phases,  all  attributes,  all  mo- 
tions of  being.  It  is  universal.  What  nature  is  to  spirit, 
what  body  is  to  its  soul,  phenomenon  is  to  Spiritualism  the 
sign  and  seal,  the  portal  and  initiation  of  this  new  religion. 
As  substance  precedes  forms,  so  spirit,  in  the  divine  order, 
precedes  these  '^  modern  manifestations."  Phenomena, 
therefore,  are  necessary  to  discoveries  of  spiritual  truth,  as 
facts  are  to  inductive  science.  All  objective  knowledge  of  a 
future  existence  is  obtained  through  the  gradations  of 
spiritual  mediumship. 

Some   writers   on   the    Spiritual   Philosophy   enumerate 
seven,  others  twenty-four  phases   of  mediumship ;  as  well 


*  Aside  from  book  references,  we  are  indebted  for  many  of  the  ideas  in  this 
volume,  to  ancient  spirits,  or  inspiring  influences.  These,  frequently  entranc- 
ing Dr.  E.  C.  Dunn,  our  traveling  companion  for  several  years,  in  the  capacity 
of  a  healer,  gave  us  valuable  suggestions  and  precious  truths,  coined  from  the 
mint  of  supernal  life.  The  spirit  teacher  to  whom  this  book  is  dedicated, 
though  a  member  of  our  circle,  is  the  spirit-guide  of  Bro.  Dunn,  phases  of 
whose  mediumship  we  have  never  seen  excelled.  In  the  field  of  progress,  he 
is  a  successful  healer  and  eloquent  speaker, 

203 


204  DOCTRINES    OF   SPIRITUALISTS 

specify  seven  hundred  and  twenty-four  thousand.  Truth  ia 
a  unit;  but  its  manifestations  are  as  diverse  as  the  organiza- 
tions through  which  it  is  revealed.  Mediumship,  therefore, 
must  be  as  multiform  as  the  diversities  of  conditions  and 
relations. 

Mediumship,  like  inspiration,  is  both  general  and  special. 
As  spirits  en  rapport  with  the  surrounding  spiritual  atmos- 
phere, breathe  and  envelop  themselves  with  its  aura,  they 
are  influenced  by  the  aggregated  magnetic  force  of  the  age, 
thus  comprehending  our  needs  in  faithful  ministrations  by 
pouring  down  upon  us  love-waves  of  heavenly  inspiration, 
leveling  up  humanity  at  large,  the  same  as  the  sun  attracts 
and  unfolds  the  floral  beauties  of  all  landscapes.  But  spirits 
in  sympathy  of  purpose  may  band  together,  as  do  earthly 
corporations,  to  accomplish  special  objects  through  the  best 
adapted  media. 

Vibrate  one  chord  of  a  musical  instrument,  and  all  the  rest 
of  the  same  tension  will  vibrate  in  harmony  with  it.  So  the 
human  spirit,  sensitive  to  the  gentlest  influence  from  the 
spiritual  spheres,  sustains  similar  relations  with  spirits  that 
musical  chords  do  to  each  other.  Thus  spirit  undulates  to 
spirit.  The  greater  the  harmony,  the  more  perfect  the 
responsive  undulation.  As  if  comprehending  this  beautiful 
law,  Jesus  prayed  that  his  "  disciples  might  be  one  with  him 
as  he  was  one  with  the  Father." 

The  manifestations  of  mediumship  are  graded  really  accord- 
ing to  the  constituent  structure  of  the  organism.  The  outer 
electric  sphere  surrounding  media,  and  others,  also,  >s  com- 
posed of  emanations,  not  only  from  the  body,  but  from  each 
of  its  organs.  Indeed,  each  brain  faculty  has  its  distinctive 
radiation.  By  this  both  spirits  and  clairvoyants  measure 
our  mental  states.  Man's  spiritual  sphere,  being  interior, 
emanates  from  the  more  ethereal  and  vitalized  substances. 
The  predominance  of  man's  electric  sphere  from  the  more 
gross  or  material — under  control  of  corresponding  spirits — is 
specially  adapted  to  physical  manifestations;  while  the  pre- 
dominance of  his  spiritual  sphere,  allies  him  more  intimateh 


MODERN    SPIRITUALISM  —  MEDIUMSHIP.  20" 

with  the  "  inner  life,"  in  harmony  with  the  spiritual  of  the 
spirit  world. 

As  a  general  division  of  mediumship,  the  following  is 
warrantable : 

I.  Physical. 

II.  Psychological. 

III.  Inspirational. 

Under  the  physical  is  comprehended  the  rappings,  tip- 
pings,  mechanical  writing,  spasmodic  motions,  movements 
of  extraneous  bodies,  etc.  To  inductionists,  and  the  masses 
generally,  these  are,  like  letters  of  the  alphabet,  important 
in  arresting  attention  and  giving  tests  of  spirit  identity  and 
the  transfer  of  intelligence,  leading  to  the  more  interior  and 
substantial. 

Under  the  second  heading  may  be  classed  psychological 
presentations,  trance,  vision,  dream,  dependent  clairvoyance, 
spirit  painting,  discovery  of  mineral  and  oil  treasures, 
and  poetical  musical  improvisations,  etc. 

Under  the  third  may  be  enumerated  impressions,  symbolic 
pictures,  inventions,  prophecies,  illumined  perceptions,  exal- 
ted inspirations,  independent  seership,  communion  with 
superior  intelligences  from  the  heavens,  etc. 

Spiritual  circles  should  be  formed  upon  scientific  princi- 
ples. The  voltaic  pile,  constructed  of  copper  and  zinc  plates, 
in  alternation,  to  evolve  the  galvanic  fluid,  is  highly  sugges- 
tive of  the  best  method.  It  is  well  to  seat  in  these  circles 
male  and  female,  alternately,  as  positive  and  negative,  with 
a  discriminating  eye  to  temperament  and  adaptation.  Man 
is  not  necessarily  positive  nor  woman  negative.  In  the 
harmonial  man  or  woman,  the  attractive  and  repellant  are 
equally  balanced.  Joining  the  hands  induces  a  more 
unitive  intermingling  of  the  magnetic  forces.  Honest  skep- 
ticism is  no  hindrance  to  success,  but  angularities  and  jeal- 
ousies are.  The  circle  once  formed  in  order,  there  should 
be  no  intrusion — no  change  of  conditions.  Minds  should  be 
passive,  the  aspirations  heavenly,  the  heart  purely  centered 
upon  the   elucidation    of  truth  with  a   patient,   devotional 


206  DOCTRINES    OF   SPIRITUALISTS. 

spirit;    and  light  will  surely  reveal  what  the  candid  soul  is 
eeeking-^the  demonstration  of  angel  presence. 

When  the  inquirers  have  advanced  into  the  real  inner  life 
of  spirituality,  there  is  little  or  no  need  for  the  circle  to 
center  the  magnetic  forces.  Through  true  development 
such  have  come  into  complete  rapport  with  their  spirit- 
guides,  rendering  the  circle  no  longer  a  necessity.  They 
virtually  become  one  of  the  circle,  constituting  its  earthly 
polarity,  receiving  by  sj^mpathetic  inspiration  the  enlightened 
unfoldment  of  angelic  life. 


pHAPTEF^   XXIL 


WITNESSES. 


Judge  Edmonds,  a  jurist  of  unimpeachable  integrity  and 
keen  discernment,  estimates  the  number  of  Spiritualists  in 
this  country  at  "  eleven  millions."  If  belief  in  the  mere 
fact  of  conscious  spirit  converse  legitimately  entitles  to  the 
appellation.  Spiritualist,  the  venerable  Judge  is  evidently 
quite  correct.  In  the  wider,  and,  we  think,  better  definition, 
Spiritualism  inter-related  to  the  inductive  and  deductive 
methods  of  research,  implies /ac^  ondi  philosophy — science  and 
religion — ^culture,  growth,  and  a  true  harmonial  life. 

In  a  lecture  delivered  by  this  eminent  legal  gentleman, 
before  the  Spiritualists  worshiping  in  Ebbitt  Hall,  he  said : 

"  I  have  been  addressed  upon  the  subject  of  Spiritualism  by  letter, 
or  personally,  by  persons  from  Cadiz  in  Spain,  from  Corfu  and  Malta  in 
the  Mediterranean,  Bengal  and  Calcutta  in  Asia,  from  Venezuela  in 
South  America,  from  Austria,  Grermany,  England,  France,  Italy,  Greece 
and  Poland  in  Europe,  from  Algiers  and  Constantinople,  from  almost 
every  State  in  North  America;  and  I  have  heard  of  my  own  publica- 
tions being  found  on  the  Himalaya  Mountains  in  Asia,  and  in  the  fore- 
castle of  a  whale  ship  in  the  Northern  Ocean ;  and  in  many  dilSerent 
languages — Latin,  Greek,  Spanish,  French,  German,  Polish  and  Indian. 
Such  and  so  wide-spread  has  become,  within  the  short  period  of  fifteen 
years,  the  knowledge  of  and  the  interest  in  our  faith. 

"  So  among  the  churches  have  I  witnessed  its  wide-spreading  influ- 
ence. High  dignitaries,  archbishops  and  bishops — both  Catholic  and 
Protestant ;  many  untitled  clergymen,  of  almost  every  denomination, 
and  Jewish  Rab'  is,  have  alike  shown  their  belief  and  their  interest  iu 
the  subject." 

207 


208  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

A  foreign  correspondent  writing  from  London,  for  the 
Boston  Commonwealth,  informed  its  readers  that — 

"  It  had  been  publicly  stated  and  not  denied,  that  John  Stuart 
Mill  had  become  a  convert  to  Spiritualism.  Certainly  the  Spiritualists 
have  an  imposing;  catalogue  of  names  to  present  before  England : 
Ruskin,  Mill,  Wilkinson.  Dr.  Whately,  William  and  Mary  Howitt,  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  S.  C.  Hall,  and  (it  is  said)  Frederick  Tennyson.  Doubtless, 
the  majority  of  these  have  been  helped  to  this  conversion  by  the 
extreme  reaction  against  Positiveness  and  Atheism,  with  a  violent 
yearning  to  find  something  beyond  the  grave  other  than  the  '  desolate 
perhaps.'" 

The  Roman  Catholic  Guardian,  St.  Louis,  Missouri,  pub- 
lished, Sept.  1868,  a  pastoral  letter  from  Bishop  Yiviers, 
relating  to  the  jplanchette  and  spiritual  manifestations.  Here 
follow  extracts  of  confession  and  warning : 

"  Doubtless  there  are  relations  between  the  intelligence  of  men  and 
the  supernatural  world  of  spirits.  These  relations  are  necessary; 
they  are  all  sweet  and  consoling  to  the  poor  creature  exiled  in  this 
valley  of  tears.  But  God  has  not  given  us  the  power  of  communica- 
tino-  with  the  other  world  by  any  and  every  way,  which  human  impru- 
dence might  avail  itself  of         *         *         * 

"  To  wish  to  penetrate  it  in  any  other  manner,  (than  the  church  pre- 
scribes) to  seek  to  discover  by  natural  means  the  hidden  mysteries  of 
heaven,  or  the  terrible  secrets  of  hell,  is  the  most  foolish  and  culpahle 
of  undertakings ;  this  is  to  make  an  attempt  to  disturb  the  order  of 
providence  and  to  make  useless  efforts  to  over-step  the  limits  imposed 
on  our  present  condition.         *         *         * 

"  What  shall  we  say  to  them  who  fear  not  to  address  hell  itself,  in 
order  to  call  from  it  the  spirit  of  Satan  ?  For  it  is  that  cunning  spirit 
which  most  ordinarily  plays  the  principal  part  in  these  manifestations  ! 
Certainly,  we  ourselves  do  not  doubt  the  fatal  intervention  of  the  fallen 
angels  in  human  affairs.     *  *  * 

"  All  idolatrous  worship  was  but  an  incessant  communication  with 
demons.  Socrates  conversed  with  his  familiar  spirit;  Pythagoras 
believed  in  the  soul  of  the  world,  which  animates,  according  to  him, 
the  different  spheres,  as  the  soul  animates  the  body.  The  poet  Lucan 
has  described  the  mysteries  which  were  used  to  enter  into  relation  with 
the  manes  of  the  dead ;  and,  in  times  yet  more  remote,  souls  from  the 
other  world  were  invoked  to  demand  the  revelation  of  hidden  things. 

'•  But,"  continues  the  vigilant  pastor  a  long  time  before  the  mul- 
titude of  facts  which  have  been  developed  from  so  many  quarters,  and 
under  so  many  observing  eyes,  were  able  to  demonstrate  to  him  the 
extraordinary  frequency  of  the  action  of  these  malicious  and  perfidious 
invisible  beings,  "  if  there  is  but  little  belief  in  the  presence  of  these 


MODERN    SPIRITUALISM  —  WITNESSES.  209 

spirits  which  they  invoke  by  means  of  the  tables,  they  should  be  not 
less  certainly  convinced  that  these  experiments  are  one  of  the  thousand 
ruses  o£  Satan  to  cause  souls  to  perish/' 

The  following  is  from  the  New  York  Independent  : 

"  Spiritualism  is  holding  up  its  head  in  London.  The  Davenport 
Brothers,  by  their  physical  manifestations,  are  exciting  a  greater  sensa- 
tion than  Mr.  Hume  did.  He  conversed  with  spirits — or,  at  all  events, 
claimed  to  have  the  power  of  spiritual  intercourse.  *  *  *  It  cannot 
be  denied  that  Spiritualism  has  made  many  converts  in  this  country, 
and  that  some  of  the  most  estimable  of  our  literary  men  and  women, 
like  the  Howitts,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  S.  C.  Hall,  and  Mr.  Robert  Bell,  are 
believers  in  what  I  suppose  one  must  call  this  strange  delusion.  Mary 
Howitt's  last  new  story — '  The  Cost  of  Caergwyn ' — which  contains 
some  charming  sketches  of  Welsh  life  and  character,  is  made  weird-like 
and  unnatural  by  all  sorts  of  ghostly  incidents.  After  all,  this  is  better 
than  the  other  extreme — that  sea  of  unbelief,  to  which  many  of  our 
finest  intellects  are  drifting.  Everything  denotes  a  period  of  transition 
and  change,  and  I  suppose  all  will  come  out  right  in  the  end." 

The  [N'ew  York  Leader,  under  the  caption — ''  Spiritualism 
looking  up," — quotes  from  Robert  Bell's  able  contribution  to 
the  Cornhill  Magazine,  and  sagely  maintaining  that  the  matter 
of  Spiritualism  is  "  deserving  of  earnest  attention,"  con- 
cludes a  very,  fair  article  with  the  following  remarks : 

*'  The  phenomena  witnessed  by  Robert  Bell,  were  witnessed  at  the 
same  time  by  Dr.  Gully,  the  eminent  physician  of  Malvern ;  by  the 
eminent  Dr.  Collier,  of  London,  and  by  other  persons  distinguished  for 
the  social  positions  they  have  attained  by  learning,  genius,  ability,  and 
vigor  of  mind.  WilMam  Hewitt,  the  author,  has  seen  and  vouches 
marvels  equally  startling.  Sir  Edward  Bulwer  Lytton,  a  Minister  of 
State;  Newton  Crossland,  one  of  our  most  successful  lecturers  and 
arutest  annotators;  Parker  Snow,  of  the  Arctic  expedition;  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  S.  G.  Hall,  celebrated  in  literature ;  Sir  David  Brewster,  Dr.  Bird, 
Lord  Brougham,  and  many  others  of  equal  note,  are  all  believers  in  the 
spiritualistic  theory.  It  is  also  known  that  Louis  Napoleon  is  a  firm 
and  ardent  student  of  these  phenomena,  and  that  he  received  many 
messages  through  Mr.  Hume,  purporting  to  emanate,  and  believed  by 
him  to  emanate,  from  the  spirit  of  Napoleon  the  First." 

The  Kew  York  Herald,  devoting  nearly  a  column,  awhile 
since,  to  the  influence  and  prospects  of  Spiritualism,  admits 
that — 

"  Ever  since  the  Fox  girls,  of  Rochester  fame,  commenced  those 
knockings  that   made   so   much   noise   in  the  world,  this  subject  has 


210  DOCTRINES    OF   SPIRITUALISTS. 

occupied  at  intervals  the  attention  and  invited  the  investigation  of 
many  scientific  minds  all  over  the  world.  Such  men  as  Lord  Lynd- 
hurst,  Lord  Brougham,  Sir  David  Brewster,  and  others,  took  much 
interest  in  it.  Some  people  claimed  that  these  distinguished  men  were 
believers ;  others  asserted  that  they  were  confirmed  skeptics.  No 
matter  for  that :  they  thought  the  subject  worth  looking  into,  like 
a  great  many  other  people.  *  *  *  It  is  said  that  even  Queen 
Victoria  consulted  the  Davenports,  and  we  know  that  Louis  Napoleon 
has  for  a  long  time  been  pursuing  his  star  in  the  stances  of  the 
American  Spiritualist,  Home, 

"  The  movement  is  a  growing  one,  strictly  democratic,  popular  in  its 
character,  and  revolutionary  in  its  nature,  and  defiant  towards  the 
prevailing  theology  of  the  age.  Its  influence  is  felt  in  the  jury-box, 
the  ballot-box,  the  bench,  the  press,  the  platform,  the  pulpit,  and  even 
our  national  council  halls.  It  asserts  the  great  Protestant  principle  of 
the  right  of  each  man  to  judge  for  himself,  become  his  own  Evangelist, 
and  get  to  heaven  his  own  way.  It  presents  the  strange  anomaly  of 
meetings  without  a  ministry,  worship  without  churches,  conventions 
without  delegates,  halls  and  fluent  speakers  that  they  pay  for,  and  yet 
without  church  edifices,  funded  property  or  real  estate — without  ordi- 
nations, convents,  colleges  or  creeds,  written  or  implied.  Spiritualists 
as  a  body  act  together,  and  even  now  have  become  a  great  power  in 
this  country  ! " 

On  another  occasion  it  published  an  account,  saying — 

■"•  The  capital  of  Peru  has  been  recently  (August  7th)  thrown  into 
some  commotion  by  a  pastoral  letter  of  its  Archbishop,  addressed  to  his 
flock,  in  reference  to  magnetism,  Spiritualism,  rappings  and  other  phe- 
nomena, which  had  lately  received  a  good  deal  of  attention  among  the 
Peruvians." 

This  Church  dignitary  stoutly  affirms,  that  it  is  "  all  the 
work  of  the  devil." 

The  Bound  Table,  aristocrat  among  the  'New  York  week- 
lies, and  one  of  the  most  astute  and  critical  periodicals 
published  in  the  country,  says — 

"  This  question  of  Spiritualism  has  been  suggested  anew  to  us 
through  reading  an  account  of  a  '  mysterious  disappearance  in  Cincin- 
nati, Ohio.*         *         *         * 

"  We  take  for  our  point  of  departure  an  extract  from  a  letter  written 
in  the  autumn  of  1852,  by  Mrs.  Sarah  Helen  Whitman,  of  Providence, 
R.  I.,  to  Horace  Greeley.  Mr.  Greeley  heads  the  extract  wit^i  a  note  to 
this  eff'ect:  'The  writer  has  received  the  following  letter  from  Mrs. 
Sarah  H,  Whitman,  in  reply  to  one  of  inquiry  from  him  as  to  her  own 
experience  in   Spiritualism,  and  especially  with  regard   to  a  remarkable 


MODERN    SPIRITUALISM  —  WITNESSES.  211 

experience,  cunoutly  reported  as  having  occurred  to  Hon.  James  F. 
Simmons,  late  United  State  Senator  from  Rhode  Island,  and  widely 
known  as  one  of  the  keenest  and  clearest  observers,  most  unlikely  to  be 
the  dupe  of  mystery  or  the  slave  of  hallucination.  Mrs.  Whitman's 
social  and  intellectual  eminence  are  not  so  widely  known ;  but  there 
are  very  many  who  know  that  her  statement  needs  no  confirmation 
whatever.' 

"  By  the  way,  Mr.  Simmons  was  in  the  Senate  for  another  term  after 
that  writing,  and  he  was  looked  up  to  as  one  of  the  ablest,  most  prac- 
tical, and  most  upright  of  its  members.  It  may  be  not  improper  for  us 
to  state,  in  the  same  connection,  that  we  have  examined  some  corres- 
pondence with  Mrs.  Whitman  relative  to  the  knowledge  of  her  mani- 
festations. She  states  therein  that  her  attention  was  called  to  the 
mystery  in  the  latter  part  of  the  year  1849,  about  three  months  before, 
(mark  this,)  before  any  intelligence  had  reached  her  of  the  singular 
exhibitions  in  Rochester,  She  noticed  the  sounds  (gentle  tappings, 
they  were  near  the  hour  of  midnight,  while  she  was  alone  in  her  cham- 
ber) for  the  first  time  after  the  death  of  a  friend.  This  friend  was  a 
boy  by  the  name  of  Albert  Helm,  about  ten  years  of  age.  He  came  to 
his  death  by  drowning  near  noon  of  the  day  preceding  the  night  on 
which  the  raps  were  heard.     But  to  Mr.  Greeley's  letter  : 

'  Dear  Sir — I  have  had  no  conversation  with  Mr.  Simmons  on  the 
subject  of  your  note  until  to-day.  I  took  an  early  opportunity  of 
acquainting  him  with  its  contents,  and  this  morning  he  called  on  me  to 
say  that  he  was  perfectly  willing  to  impart  to  you  the  particulars  of  his 
experience  in  relation  to  the  mysterious  writing  i:>erformed  under  the 
very  eyes^  in  broad  day  liyht^  by  an  invisible  agent. 

'  In  the  fall  of  1850,  several  messages  were  telegraphed  to  Mrs. 
Simmons  through  the  electric  sounds,  purporting  to  come  from  her 
step-son,  Jas.  D.  Simmons,  who  died  some  weeks  before  in  California. 
The  messages  were  calculated  to  stimulate  curiosity  and  lead  to  an 
observation  of  the  phenomena.  Mrs.  Simmons,  having  heard  that 
messages  in  the  hand-writing  of  deceased  persons  were  sometimes 
written  through  the  same  medium,  asked  if  her  son  would  give  her 
this  evidence.  She  was  informed  (through  the  sounds)  that  the 
attempt  should  be  made,  and  was  directed  to  place  a  slip  of  paper  in  a 
certain  drawer  at  the  house  of  the  medium,  and  to  lay  beside  it  her  own 
pencil,  which  had  been  given  her  by  the  deceased.  Weeks  passed,  and 
although  frequent  inquiries  were  made,  no  writing  was  found  on  the 
paper. 

'  Mrs.  Simmons  happening  to  call  at  the  house  one  day,  accompanied 
by  her  husband,  made  the  usual  inquiry  and  received  the  usual  answer. 
The  drawer  had  been  opened  not  two  hours  before,  and  nothing  was 
seen  in  it  but  the  pencil  lying  on  the  blank  paper.  At  the  suggestion 
of  Mrs.  Simmons,  however,  another  investigation  was  made,  and  on  the 
paper  were  found  a  few  pencil  lines,  resembling  the  hand-writing  of  the 
deceased,  but  not  so  closely  as   to  satisfy  the  mother's  doubts      ?Irs. 


212  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

SimmoB^s  handed  the  paper  to  her  husband;  he  thought  there  was  a 
slight  i9sembhince,  but  would  probably  not  have  remarked  it  had  the 
writing  been  casuall}^  presented  to  him.  Had  the  signature  been  given 
him,  he  should  at  once  have  decided  on  the  resemblance.  He  proposed, 
if  the  spirit  of  his  son  were  indeed  present,  as  alphabetical  communi- 
cations received  through  the  sounds  affirmed  him  to  be,  that  he  should, 
then  and  there,  affix  his  signature  to  the  suspicious  document. 

'  In  order  to  facilitate  the  operation,  Mrs.  Simmons  placed  the  closed 
points  of  a  pair  of  scissors  in  the  hand  of  the  medium  and  dropped  her 
pencil  through  one  of  the  rings  or  bows,  the  paper  being  placed 
beneath.  The  hand  presently  began  to  tremble,  and  it  was  with  diffi- 
culty it  could  retain  its  hold  of  the  scissors.  Mr.  Simmons  then  took 
the  scissors  into  his  own  hand  and  dropped  the  pencil  through  the  ring. 
It  could  not  readily  be  sustained  in  this  position.  After  a  few  moments, 
however,  it  stood  as  if  firmly  poised  and  perfectly  still.  It  then  began 
slowly  to  move.  Mr.  Simmons  saw  the  letters  traced  beneath  his  eyes — 
the  icords.  James  D.  Simmons,  were  distinctly  and  deliberately  written, 
and  the  hand-writing  ivas  a  fac-sim.ile  of  his  son's  signature. 

'But  what  Mr.  Simmons  regards  as  the  most  astonishing  part  of  this 
seeming  miracle  is  yet  to  be  told.  Bending  down  to  scrutinize  the 
writing  more  closely,  he  observed,  just  as  the  last  word  was  finished, 
that  the  top  of  the  pencil  leaned  to  the  right.  He  thought  it  was 
about  to  slide  through  the  ring;  but,  to  his  infinite  surprise,  he  saw  the 
point  slide  slowly  back  along  the  word  '  Simmons,'  till  it  rested  over  the 
letter  i,  when  it  imprinted  a  dot.  This  was  a  puctilio  utterly  unthought 
of  by  him — he  had  not  noticed  the  omission,  and  was  therefore  entirely 
unprepared  for  the  amendment.  He  suggested  the  experiment,  and  he 
thinks  it  had  kept  pace  only  with  his  will  or  desire ;  but  how  will  those 
who  deny  the  agency  of  disembodied  spirits  in  these  marvels,  ascribing 
all  to  the  unassisted  powers  of  the  human  will,  or  to  the  blind  action 
of  electricity — how  will  they  dispose  of  this  last  significant  and  curious 
fact  ? 

'  The  only  peculiarity  observable  in  the  writing  was  that  the  lines 
seemed  sometimes  slightly  broken,  as  if  the  pencil  had  been  lifted,  then 
set  down  again. 

'  One  other  circumstance  I  am  permitted  to  note,  which  is  not  readily 
to  be  accounted  for  on  any  other  than  spiritual  agency.  Mr.  Simmons, 
who  received  no  particulars  of  his  son's  death  until  several  months  after 
his  decease,  proposing  to  send  for  his  remains,  questioned  the  spirit  as 
to  the  manner  in  which  the  body  had  been  disposed  of,  and  received  a 
very  minute  and  circumstantial  account  of  the  means  which  had  been 
resorted  to  for  its  preservation,  it  being  at  the  time  unburied.  Im- 
probable as  some  of  these  statements  seemed,  they  were,  after  an  inter- 
val of  four  months,  confirmed  as  literally  true  by  a  gentleman  then 
recently  returned  from  California,  who  was  with  young  Simmons  at  the 
period  of  his  death.  Intending  soon  to  return  to  California,  he  called 
on  Mr.  Simmons  to  learn  his  wishes  in  relation  to  the  final  dispositioD 


MODERN    SPIRITUALISM  —  WITNESSES.  213 

of  his  remains.     The  above  particulars  I  took  down  in  writing,  by  the 
permission  of  Mr.  Simmons,  during  his  rehition  of  the  facts.* 

"  This  case  we  have  given  as  a  fair  representative  of  a  c.iss  of  cases 
— as  one  among  a  thousand  similar  ones,  which  have  been  testified  to  by 
tens  of  thousands  of  witnesses  whose  candor,  truthfulness  and  common 
sense  touching  a  usual  occurrence,  would  not  be  disputed  for  a  moment. 
Then,  we  may  be  allowed  to  offer  it  as  a  particular  subject  for  consid- 
eration, just  as  if  it  embraced  the  whole  matter  seeking  discussion  and 
decision.  We  think  it  better  so  than  otherwise;  because  anyone,  more 
especially  any  one  who  is  not  much  in  the  habit  of  arguing,  can  do  his 
cause  fuller  justice  while  confining  himself  to  particulars,  than  he  can 
when  going  off  into  generalities — he  is  apt,  in  the  latter  way,  to  lose 
himself  and  his  argument. 

"  Well,  what  exactly  is  the  pith  of  the  cause  before  us  ?  It  is  this  :  It 
in  effect  is  affirmed  by  many  thousand  witnesses,  who  ordinarily  would  be 
reckoned  trustworthy  by  any  court  in  Christendom,  that  a  certain  piece 
of  information  had  been  imparted  to  them  in  a  certain  way.  There  is  not 
the  shadow  of  a  reason  for  supposing  that  they — the  witnesses — were 
not  in  full  possession  of  their  every-day  senses  at  the  time  of  the  phe- 
nomena. They  had  broad  day  light  and  every  other  natural  facility  for 
those  senses  to  be  normally  impressed.  The  communication  was  written 
by  no  visible  hand — by  the  hand  of  no  one  of  themselves  present.  The 
chirography  is  that  of  no  one  present;  but  it  does  bear  a  i'uW  fac-sinu'le 
resemblance  to  that  which  they  have  been  familiar  with,  of  a  person 
whom  they  knew  at  the  time  to  be  away  from  among  them.  There  was 
no  possibility  for  the  substance  of  the  communication  through  common 
means  to  be  known  to  them  at  the  time  it  was  given.  That  substance 
was  proved  afterward,  upon  normal  evidence,  to  be  the  actual  substance, 
both  in  general  and  in  detail,  of  an  actual  event.  Then,  here  is  shown, 
unmistakably,  an  act,  committed  by  no  discoverable  natural  instrument, 
and  presided  over  by  an  intelligence,  by  mind,  which  is  outside  of,  apart 
from,  distant  from  anybody  within  the  neighborhood  of  the  committal. 

"  And  now  comes  the  point  which  we  desire  to  hold  out  to  view,  and 
upon  which,  as  upon  a  pivot,  all  discussion  touching  the  matter  ought 
to  turn.  It  is  this  :  Where  and  what  is  that  intelligence  ?  Those  tens 
of  thousands  of  witnesses  have  been  led,  not  hastily,  but  gradually, 
after  careful  sifting  and  weighing  of  evidence,  to  the  conclusion  that  it 
is  no  other  than  the  spirit  which  has  dwelt  heretofore  in  the  body  now 
departed.  They  find  confirmation  of  their  belief  in  their  Bibles,  which 
tell  them  distinctly  of  departed  spirits  not  only,  but  of  the  returning 
of  the  same  to  earth.  In  that  conclusion  they  are  fixed  firmly,  rightly, 
according  to  sound  law,  until  such  time  as  their  opponents  shall  array 
evidence  equally  strong  to  sustain  their  own  contrary  theory,  whatever 
that  may  be.  If  they  maintain  that  intelligence  to  be,  for  example, 
slectricity,  they  are  bound  to  exhibit  to  the  actual  eyesight  the  produc- 
ing battery  and  the  conducting  wires,  and   to  reveal  precisely  how  it 


214  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALIvSTS. 

happsned  that  the  battery  came  into  possession  of  just  those  materials 
out  of  which  to  brew  electricity,  such  as  should  be  identical  with  the 
knowledge  possessed  by  a  particular  body  before  it  parted  with  its  spirit. 
If  they  hold  the  intelligence  to  be  mesmerism,  it  devolves  upon  them 
to  point  out  the  niesmerizer^  to  explain  how  he  manages  to  throw  from 
his  own  mind  into  that  of  another,  information  which  never  was  in  his 
mind,  and  how  he  handles  the  pencil.  Hence  the  burden  of  the  proof 
is  upon  the  negative.  Let  her  or  him  who  will  take  the  negative  bring 
forth  the  proof." 

Tie  Scientific  American,  a  rightly  named  and  widely  circu- 
lated paper,  writes  editorially  of  the  Planchdte : 

"  You  may  hold  a  conversation  with  planchette,  provided  your  own 
part  in  it  consists  in  interrogation.  Its  replies,  so  far  as  we  have  seen, 
are  sometimes  true  and  sometimes  false.  So  are  the  replies  given  by 
human  respondents.  It  sometimes  refuses  to  write  at  all,  and  plays  the 
most  fantastic  tricks,  in  apparently  wilful  disregard  of  the  feelings  of 
those  who  are  anxious  that  it  should  do  its  best.  *  *  *  These 
motions  seem  to  those  whose  fingers  rest  upon  the  board  to  be  entirely 
independent  of  their  own  wills,  their  only  care  being  to  avoid  any 
resistance  to  its  motions.  The  fact  that  it  is  impossible  to  suppose  that 
the  wills  of  two  persons  could  be,  by  their  own  desire,  mutually  co- 
incident, without  previous  agreement^  forms  one  of  the  most  puzzling 
features  of  the  subject,  as  the  nature  of  the  question  asked  and 
answered  precludes  the  possibility  of  collusion." 

"The  spirit  with  which  scientific  men  have  looked  upon  these  phe- 
nomena, (denominated  Spiritualism)  has  been  unfortunately  such  as  has 
retarded  their  solution.  Skepticism  as  to  their  reality,  although  cor- 
roborated by  evidence  that  would  be  convincing  upon  any  other  subject, 
refusal  to  investigate,  except  upon  their  own  conditions,  and  ridicule 
not  only  of  the  phenomena  themselves,  but  of  those  who  believe  in 
them,  have  marked  their  course  ever  since  these  manifestations  have 
laid  claim  to  public  credence.  Such  a  spirit  savors  of  biyotnj.  The 
phenomena  of  table-tipping,  spirit-rapping  (so  called),  and  the  various 
manifestations  which  many  have  claimed  to  be  the  efiect  of  other  wills 
acting  upon  and  through  the  medium  of  their  persons,  are  exerting  an 
immense  influence,  good  or  bad,  throughout  the  civilized  world.  They 
should,  therefore,  be  candidly  examined,  and  if  they  are  purely  phys- 
ical phenomena,  as  has  been  claimed,  they  should  be  referred  to  their 
true  cause.  This  is  due  to  truth,  and  the  common  duty  which  all  owe 
to  their  fellow  men.  Nothing  that  afi'ects  the  welfare  of  mankind 
should  be  considered  beneath  the  notice  of  a  true  philosopher.  What 
incalculable  benefit  might  have  resulted  if  the  same  amount  of  study 
had  been  given  to  the  subject  of  witchcraft,  at  the  time  of  its  occur- 
rence, that  has  since  been  bestowed  upon  it.  When  such  things  become 
matters  r '  history,  there  are  always  enough  who  do  not  think  it  derog- 
atory to  their   dignity  to   devote  their  time  to  speculation  upon  theii 


MODERN    SPIRITUALISM  —  WITNESSES.  216 

causes.     How  much  wiser  is  it  to  throw  aside  prejudice,  and  to  look  at 
the  facts  themselves  in  a  spirit  of  candor  and  earnest  desire  for  truth." 

The  Herald  and  Review^  a  religious  journal,  writes  edito- 
rially of  the  progress  of  the  spiritual  movement  in  this 
style : 

*•  We  often  hear  the  remark,  '  Spiritualism  is  dying  out.'  Whenever 
we  hear  one  make  such  a  statement,  we  are  led  to  think  at  once.  Did 
you  know  what  it  is  doing,  you  would  take  back  that  saying,  and  stand 
aghast  at  its  gigantic  strides.  He  might  as  well  have  said,  Popery  was 
dying  out  in  the  thirteenth  century,  because  very  little  noise  was  made 
about  it.  The  reason  was,  there  were  scarcely  any  left  to  oppose,  hence 
all  was  comparatively  quiet.  Spiritualism  has  already  planted  its  sen- 
timents so  firmly,  and  generally,  in  church  and  state,  that  the  victory 
is  nearly  complete.  The  opposition  is  now  very  feeble,  like  that  of  a 
dying  man  in  his  last  moments. 

"  We  do  not  say  that  the  great  body  of  the  church  and  state  are  yet 
avowed  Spiritualists;  but  that  the  sentiments  of  Spiritualists,  more  or 
less,  are  being  adopted  by  the  masses." 

This,  though  perhaps  an  unwilling,  is  a  true  manly 
confession. 

Thus  are  these  literati,  scientists  and  sectarists  forced  to 
concede  to  Spiritualism  a  wonderful  destiny  of  use  in  every 
department  of  earth's  government.  When  the  ocean  moves 
in  unchainable  tides,  all  the  bays  and  coves  fill  up  to  over- 
flowing. Every  soul  is  moved  by  the  inflowing  tides  oi 
inspiration.  All  are  pushed  forward.  Even  opposition 
reacts  into  acceleration.  "  He  maketh  the  wrath  of  man  to 
prai&o  Him." 


ChAPTEI^^    XXIII. 

CLERICAL  AND  LITERARY. 


"  Out  of  the  strong,  came  forth  sweetness." — Judg.  14  :  14, 

•'  In  the  mouth  of  two  or  three  witnesses  every  word  may  be  established/  - 
Matt.  18  :  16. 

"  I  give  you  the  end  of  a  golden  string  : 
Only  wind  it  into  a  ball, 
It  will  lead  you  in  at  Heaven's  gate, 
,   That  invitingly  ope's  for  all," 

The  ideal  is  the  prophetic.  It  precedes,  in  orderly  series, 
the  objective  actual.  The  finest  human  types,  moulding  the 
present,  are  but  dwarfs  of  those  promised  men,  yet  to  crown 
the  ages  with  ineffable  splendor.  Out  from  the  evolutions  of 
a  life  divine  and  circular,  are  continually  being  born  leaders 
and  witnesses  for  the  people.  The  good  abounds  everywhere. 
Progress  is  universal.  The  rock  that  one  civilization  fails 
to  crush,  crumbles  into  soil  to  nourish  the  roots  of  the 
succeeding.  The  bee  extracts  sweets  from  thistles  and 
thorn-blossoms.  At  the  tolling  of  church-bells  on  Sunday 
mornings,  there  stream  from  old  barreled  sermons  many  glit- 
tering truths.  Piercing  through  the  sophistries  of  specu- 
lation, the  lifeless  skepticism  of  science,  and  the  corpse- 
incrustations  of  creeds,  there  are  living,  regeneratir  g  forces 
at  work  in  the  most  hidden  avenues  of  society.  Angels 
seek  and  minister  to  all  conditions  of  mortality.  The  clergy, 
overshadowed  by  an  inspiration  that  stirs  the  divinity  within, 

216 


MODERN    SPIRITUALISM  —  CLERICAL    AND    LITERARY.        217 

often  preach  better  than  they  believe — wiser  than  their  con- 
fessions of  faith  warrant.  As  in  apostolic  times,  a  "  rushing 
wind,"  a  descending  afflatus  from  circling  bands  of  spirits, 
sometimes  completely  overmasters  them.  They  then  speak 
as  with  tongues  of  fire,  and  their  words  touch  the  heart,  the 
conscience  and  the  reason. 

Souls  thus  kindled  from  the  love-flames  of  heaven,  pulsate 
in  harmony  with  the  infinite  Over-Soul,  Spirit  answers  to 
the  spiritual.  Partially  intromitted,  at  times,  into  the  realm 
of  that  quickening  inner  life,  as  was  John,  of  Patmos,  '*  on 
the  Lord's  day,"  the  better  portion  of  American  preachers 
often  preach  Spiritualism;  admitting  the  reality  of  its  phe- 
nomena, and  the  truth  of  much  or  all   of   its  philosophy. 

Rev.  H.  W.  Beecher's  testimony : 

"  Oh,  tell  me  not  that  the  fathers  of  this  Republic  are  dead — that 
generous  host,  that  airy  army  of  invincible  heroes.  They  hover  as  a 
cloud  of  witnesses  above  this  nation.  Are  they  dead  that  yet  speak 
louder  than  we  can  speak,  and  a  more  universal  language  ?  Are  they 
dead  that  yet  act  ?  Are  they  dead  that  yet  move  upon  society,  and 
inspire  the  people  with  nobler  motives  and  more  heroic  patriotism  ?  " 

In  one  of  his  practical  sermons,  delivered  on  the  8th  of 
Jan.,  1867,  he  says: 

"  Our  field  of  conflict  is  different  from  that  on  which  men  oppose 
each  other.  It  comprises  the  whole  unseen  realm.  All  the  secret 
roads,  and  paths,  and  avenues,  in  which  spirits  dwell,  are  filled  with  a 
great  invisible  host.  These  are  our  adversaries.  And  they  are  all  the 
more  dangerous  because  they  are  invisible.  Subtle  are  they.  We  are 
unconscious  of  their  presence.  They  come,  they  go;  they  assail,  they 
retreat;  they  plan,  they  attack,  they  withdraw;  they  carry  on  all  the 
processes  by  which  they  mean  to  suborn  or  destroy  us,  without  the 
possibility  of  our  seeing  them. 

'^  I  confess  to  you,  there  is  something  in  my  mind  of  sublimity  in  the 
idea  that  the  world  is  full  of  spirits,  good  and  evil,  who  are  pursuing 
their  various  errands,  and  that  the  little  that  we  can  see  witu.  these 
bats'  eyes  of  ours,  the  little  that  we  can  decipher  with  these  imperfect 
senses,  is  not  the  whole  of  the  reading  of  those  vast  pages  of  that 
great  volume  which  God  has  written.  There  is  in  the  lore  of  God 
more  than  our  philosophy  has  ever  dreamed  of. 

"  An  evil  spirit  may  be  consummately  refined,  may  be  inspired.  Our 
first  thought   in  contemplating  this  subject  is.  that  an  evil  spirit  laiist 


•218  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

be  a  vulgar  thing  Doubtless  there  are  vulgar  spirits ;  but  it  does  not 
follow  at  all  that  spirits  who  are  most  potential,  and  most  to  be  feared, 
are  vulgar.  On  the  contrary,  where  spirits  are  embodied,  it  is  supposed 
that  those  who  are  the  most  cultured  are  the  most  powerful  for  evil. 

"The  perversion  of  moral  ideas — the  suborning  of  all  things  to  sel- 
fishness— the  want  of  truth  and  equity — the  corruption  of  religion — 
these  things  are  inexplicable  on  any  other  supposition  than  that  there 
are  mighty  powers  at  work  above  the  agencies  of  nature,  and  beyond  the 
will  of  men ;  that  there  are  spirits  of  wickedness  that  are  abroad  in 
the  world,  and  that  render  life  UDSafe. 

"  On  the  other  hand,  I  believe  that  there  are  angels  of  light,  spirits 
of  the  blessed,  ministers  of  God.  I  believe,  not  only  that  they  are  our 
natural  guardians,  and  friends,  and  teachers,  and  influencers,  but  also 
that  they  are  natural  antagonists  of  evil  spirits.  In  other  words,  I 
believe  that  the  great  realm  of  life  goes  on  without  the  body  very  much 
as  it  does  with  the  body.  And,  as  here  the  mother  not  only  is  the 
guardian  of  her  children  whom  she  loves,  but  foresees  that  bad  asso- 
ciates  and  evil  influences  threaten  them,  and  draws  them  back  and 
shields  them  from  the  impending  danger;  so  ministering  spirits  not 
only  minister  to  us  the  diviuest  tendencies,  the  purest  tastes,  the  noblest 
thoughts  and  feelings,  but,  perceiving  our  adversaries,  caution  us  against 
them,  and  assail  them,  and  drive  them  away  from  us. 

"  The  economy,  in  detail,  of  this  matter,  no  man  understands.  All 
we  can  say  is,  in  general,  that  such  antagonism  exists ;  that  there  are 
spirits  that  seek  our  good,  and  other  spirits  that  seek  our  harm ;  that 
that  there  are  spirits  that  seek  to  take  us  to  glory,  and  honor,  and 
immortality,  and  other  spirits  that  seek  to  take  us  to  degradation.*' 

In  another  discourse  reported  in  the  ]S"ew  York  Independ- 
ent^ he  employed  the  following  unmistakable  language.  The 
quotations  are  introduced  without  any  special  view  to  their 
logical  connection.  Mr.  Beecher  himself  is  a  stranger  to 
the  logic  of  the  schools : 

"  There  is  an  atmosphere  of  the  soul  as  well  as  an  atmosphere  of 
nature.  In  the  atmosphere  of  the  soul,  God  sometimes  brings  down 
the  divine  landscape,  heavenly  truths,  so  clearly  that  the  soul  rests 
upon  them  as  upon  a  picture  let  down. 

"  Out  of  the  dust  and  din  and  mist  and  observations  of  life,  there 
come  moments  when  God  permits  us  to  see,  in  a  second,  further,  wider, 
and  easier,  than  by  ordinary  methods  of  logic  we  can  see  in  a  whole  life. 
Do  I  undervalue  logic  when  I  say  that  it  is  inferior  to  intuition  ?  Intu- 
ition^ when  at  white  heat,  teaches  a  man  in  a  single  moment  more  than 
logic  ever  teaches  him.  Logic  constructs  the  walls  of  thought,  throws 
up  ramparts,  and  lays  out  highways;  but  it  never  discovers.  Logic 
merely  builds,  fortifies,  demarks.  The  discovering  power  is  intuition. 
There  are  certain  times  when  parts  of  the  mind  lift  themselves  up  with 


MODERN    SPIRITUALISM  —  CLERICAL    AND    LITERARY.        219 

a  kind  of  celestial  preparation,  and  we  see  and  think  and  feel  more  in 
a  single  hour  than  ordinarily  we  do  in  a  whole  year.  And  however 
useful  and  needful  reasoning  may  be,  as  compared  with  these  sudden 
insights,  it  is  scarcely  to  be  mentioned  with  respect. 

"  Ordinarily  we  are  under  the  influence  of  the  things  which  are  seen. 
In  our  lower  life  we  must  be  under  the  influence  of  sense.  But  now 
and  then,  we  know  not  how,  we  rise  into  an  atmosphere  in  which  spirit- 
life,  God,  Christ,  the  ransomed  throng  in  heaven,  virtue,  truth,  faith 
and  love,  become  more  significant  to  us,  and  seem  to  rest  down  upon  us 
with  more  force,  than  the  very  things  which  our  physical  senses  recog- 
nize. There  have  been  times,  in  which  I  declare  to  you.  heaven  was 
more  real  than  earth;  in  which  my  children  that  were  gone  spoke  more 
plainly  to  me  than  my  children  that  were  with  me ;  in  which  the  blessed 
estate  of  the  spirits  of  just  men  made  perfect  in  heaven,  seemed  more 
real  and  near  to  me  than  the  estate  of  any  just  man  upon  earth.  These 
are  experiences  that  link,  one  with  another  and  a  higher  life.  They 
are  generally  not  continuous,  but  occasional  openings  through  which  we 
look  into  the  other  world.  *****  These  glimpses  of  the 
future  state  are  a  great  comfort  and  consolation  to  all  those  who  are 
looking  and  waiting  for  that  development  of  perfect  manhood." 

This  clergyman  doing  an  immense  work  for  freedom  and 
religious  progress,  should  not  be  too  severely  criticised  by 
such  uncompromising  progressionists  as  were  fortunate 
enough  to  snap  their  ecclesiastical  fetters  at  a  single  bound. 
Though  contradictory,  though  his  clerical  trumpet  often 
gives  an  "uncertain  sound,"  he  is  a  grand  man  with  a  warm 
heart  and  an  inspirational  brain.  Pardon  him,  then,  for 
occasionally  "falling  from  grace,"  to  flounce,  at  intervals, 
in  the  miry  clay  of  his  childhood  catechism.  The  history  of 
mediumship  furnishes  many  similar  cases. 

Kev.  E.  H.  Chapin's  testimony : 

In  a  masterly  discourse,  entitled  '*  the  voices  of  the  dead," 
this  eminent  pulpit  orator  breathed  these  words  of  cheer.  It 
is  Universalism  just  blooming  into  Spiritualism — faith  smiling 
at  its  first  glimpse  of  knowledge  : 

"  Well,  then,  is  it  for  us  at  times,  to  listen  to  the  voices  of  the  dead. 
By  so  doing  we  are  better  fitted  for  Hfe  and  for  death.  From  that 
audience  we  go  purified  and  strengthened  into  the  varied  discipline  of 
our  mortal  state.  We  are  willing  to  Uay^  knowing  that  the  dead  are  so 
near  us,  and  that  our  communion  with  them  may  be  so  intimate.     We 


220  DOCTRINES    OP   SPIRITUALISTS. 

are  willing  to  go,  seeing  that  we  shall  not  be  wholly  separated  from 
those  we  leave  behind.  We  will  toil  in  our  lot  while  Grod  pleases,  and 
when  he  summons  us  we  will  calmly  depart." 

Referring  to  certain  moods  and  "  consecrated  nours,"  he 
adds: 

"  Then,  though  dead,  they  speak  to  us.  It  needs  not  the  verbal 
utterance,  nor  the  living  presence,  but  the  mood  that  transforms  the 
scene,  and  the  hour  supplies  these.  That  face  that  has  slept  so  long  in 
the  grave,  now  bending  over  us,  pale  and  silent,  but  affectionate  still — 
the  more  vivid  recollection  of  every  feature,  tone,  and  movement,  that 
brings  before  the  departed  just  as  we  knew  them,  in  the  full  flush  of 
life  and  health — that  soft  and  consecrating  spell  which  falls  upon  us, 
drawing  in  all  our  thoughts  from  the  present,  arresting,  as  it  were,  the 
current  of  our  being,  and  tuniing  it  back,  and  holding  it  still,  as  the 
flood  of  which  rushes  by  us — while  in  that  trance  of  soul,  the  beings 
of  the  past  are  shadowed — old  friends,  old  days,  old  scenes  recur, 
familiar  looks  beam  close  upon  us,  familiar  words  re-echo  in  our  ears, 
and  we  closed  up  and  absorbed  with  the  by-gone,  until  tears  dissolve 
the  film  from  our  eyes,  and  some  shock  of  the  actual  wakes  us  from  our 
reverie ; — all  these,  I  say,  make  the  dead  commune  with  us  as  really 
as  though  in  bodily  form  they  should  come  out  from  their  mysterious 
silence  and  speak  to  us.  And  if  life  consists  in  experience,  and  not  mere 
physical  contacts — and  if  love  and  communion  belong  to  that  expe- 
rience, though  they  take  place  in  meditation,  or  dreams,  or  by  actual 
contact — then,  in  that  hour  of  remembrance,  we  have  really  lived  with 
the  departed,  and  the  departed  have  come  back  and  lived  with  us." 

Rev.  Theodore  Parker's  testimony  : 

This  individual,  so  self-poised  and  towering  in  intellect, 
was  the  man-colossus  among  American  clergy.  Ascended 
he  is  living  and  speaking  still,  through  our  media.  Assum- 
ing that  revelation  was  no  green-house  exotic,  but  perpetual 
as  cycling  ages,  and  that  inspiration,  native  to  the  postures 
of  the  soul,  is  cognate  with  the  races,  he  propagated  a 
religious  philosophy  that  will  stream  in  increasing  beauty 
through  all  the  future  eras  of  free  thought.  His  grave  is  a 
Mecca  under  the  mellow  skies  of  Florence.  Considered 
mentally  he  was  thoroughly  self-conscious  of  his  greatness. 

"  Tend  this  head  well,"  says  Mirabeau,  on  his  death-bed; 
"  it  is  the  greatest  head  in  France."  '^  God  gave  me  great 
powers,"  says  the  expiring  Parker,  "  and  I  have  but  half 


MODERN    .SPIRITUALISM  —  CLERICAL    AND    LITERARY.  221 

used  tliem."  The  coincidence  was  singular,  while  saying 
in  his  last  hours — "  There  are  two  Theodore  Parkers,  the 
one  here  sick  and  struggling,  the  other  at  work  at  home." 
There  was  a  friend  reading  at  the  time  one  of  his  great 
sermons  in  Music  Hall.  There  were  "  two  Theodore  Par- 
kers " — the  shadow  and  the  substance,  for  man  is  dual,  aye, 
trinal.  The  papers  thought  him  "wandering  a  little."  The 
Jews  evidently  thought  Paul  w^as  "  wandering "  when 
"  caught  up  to  the  third  heaven,"  not  knowing  whether  he 
was  in  the  body  or  out. 

In  thought  and  speech,  relative  to  the  Spiritual  Philosophy, 
he  was  manly  and  heroic.  In  notes  made  for  a  sermon  we 
tiud  the  following : 

"  In  1856  it  seems  more  likely  that  Spiritualism  would  become  the 
religioa  of  America,  than  in  156  that  Christianitj^  would  become  the 
religion  of  the  Roman  empire,  or  in  756  that  Mohammedanism  would 
be  that  of  the  Arabian  populations  : 

"1.  It  has  more  evidence  for  its  wonders  than  any  historic  form  of 
religion  hitherto. 

"  2.  It  is  thoroughly  democratic,  with  no  hierarchy ;  but  inspiration 
is  open  to  all. 

"  3.  It  is  no  fixed  fact — has  no  punctum  stans,  but  is  a  punctum 
Aliens. 

"4.  It  admits  all  the  truths  of  religion  and  morality  in  all  the  world- 
sects." 

"•  Shall  we  know  our  friends  again  ?  For  my  own  part  I  cannot  doubt 
it;  least  of  all,  when  I  drop  a  tear  over  their  recent  dust  Death  does 
not  separate  them  from  us  here.     Can  life  in  heaven  do  it?  " 

The  succeeding  paragraphs  we  transcribe  from  Wm.  How- 

itt's  "  History  of  the  Supernatural."  Who  but  Theodore 
Parker  could  have  written  thus  upon  Spiritualism  ? 

"Let  others  judge  the  merits  and  defects  of  this  scheme;  it  has 
never  organized  a  church — yet,  in  all  ages,  from  the  earliest,  men  have 
more  or  less  freely  set  forth  its  doctrines.  We  find  these  men  amongst  the 
despised  and  forsaken  ;  the  world  was  not  ready  to  receive  them.  They 
have  been  stoned  and  spit  upon  in  all  the  streets  of  the  world.  The 
'  pious '  have  burned  them  as  haters  of  God  and  man  ;  the  wicked  called 
them  bad  names  and  let  them  go.  They  have  served  to  flesh  the  swords 
of  the  Catholic  Church,  and  fed  the  fires  of  the  Protestants;  but  flames 
and  steel  will  not  consume  them ;  the  seed  they  have  sown  is  quick  in 
many  a  heart — their  memory  blessed  by  such  as  live  divine.     These  are 


1^22  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

men  at  whom  the  world  opens  wide  the  mouth,  and  draws  out  the  tongue, 
and  utters  its  impertinent  laugh ;  but  thej  received  the  fires  of  God  on 
their  altars,  and  kept  living  its  sacred  flame.  Thej  go  on,  the  forlorn 
hope  of  the  race ;  but  Truth  puts  a  wall  of  fire  about  them,  and  holds 
the  shield  over  their  heads  in  the  day  of  trouble.  The  battle  of  truth 
seems  often  lost,  but  is  always  won.  Her  enemies  but  erect  the  blood 
scaffolding  where  the  workmen  of  Grod  go  up  and  down,  and,  with 
divine  hands,  build  wiser  than  they  know.  When  the  scaffolding  falls 
the  temple  will  appear."  *         * 

"  This  party  has  an  idea  wider  and  deeper  than  that  of  the  Gatholio 
or  Protestant;  namely,  that  God  still  inf^pires  men  as  much  as  ever; 
that  he  is  imminent  in  spirit  as  in  space.  For  the  present  purpose,  and 
to  avoid  circumlocution,  this  doctrine  may  be  called  Spiritualism.  This 
relies  on  no  church  tradition,  or  scripture,  as  the  last  ground  and  infal- 
lible rule.  It  counts  these  things  teachers,  if  they  teach — not  masters; 
helps^  if  they  help  us — not  authorities.  It  relies  on  the  divine  presence 
ia  the  soul  of  men — the  eternal  word  of  God,  which  is  Truth,  as  it 
speaks  through  the  faculties  he  has  given.  It  believes  God  is  near  the 
soul  as  matter  to  the  sense ;  thinks  the  canon  of  revelation  not  yet 
closed,  nor  God  exhausted.  It  sees  him  in  Nature's  perfect  work ; 
hears  him  in  all  true  Scriptures,  Jewish  or  Phoenician ;  feels  Him  in 
the  inspiration  of  the  heart;  stoops  at  the  same  fountain  with  Moses 
and  Jesus,  and  is  filled  with  living  water.  It  calls  God,  Father,  not 
King;  Christ,  brother,  not  redeemer;  Heaven,  home;  Religion,  Nature! 
It  loves  and  trusts,  but  does  not  fear.  It  sees  in  Jesus  a  man,  living, 
man-like ;  highly  gifted  and  living  with  blameless  and  beautiful  fidelity 
to  God — stepping  thousands  of  years  before  the  race  of  men — the  pro- 
foundest  religious  genius  that  God  has  raised  up;  whose  words  and 
works  help  us  to  form  and  develop  the  native  idea  of  a  complete  reli- 
gious man.  But  he  lived  for  himself,  died  for  himself,  worked  out  his 
own  salvation^  and  we  must  do  the  same;  for  one  man  cannot  live  for 
another,  more  than  he  can  eat  or  sleep  for  him.  It  lays  down  no  creed, 
asks  no  symbol,  reverences  exclusively  no  time  nor  place,  and  therefore 
can  use  all  time  and  every  place.  It  reckons  forms  useful  to  such  as 
thpy  help.  Its  temple  is  all  space,  its  shrine  the  good  heart,  its  creed 
all  truth,  its  ritual  works  of  love  and  utility,  its  profession  of  faith  a 
divine  life,  works  without  faith^  within  love  of  God  and  man.  It  takes 
all  the  helps  it  can  get ;  counts  no  good  word  profane,  though  a  heathen 
spoke  it — no  lie  sacred,  though  the  greatest  prophet  had  said  the  word. 
Its  redeemer  is  within^  its  salvation  within^  its  heaven  and  it  oracle  of 
God.  It  falls  back  on  perfect  religion — asks  no  more,  is  satisfied  with 
no  less.'* 

Harriet  Beecher  Stowe's  testimony : 
While  walking  among  the  trees  that  surrounded  the  Aber- 
deen Cathedral,  immortals  seemed  to  accompany  this  truly 


MODERN    SPIRITUALISM  —  CLERICAL   AND    LITERARY.         223 

inspired  woman  and   author.     In  "Sunny  Memories,"  she 
wrote : 

"  I  cannot  get  over  the  feeUng  that  the  souls  of  the  dead  do  some 
how  connect  themselves  with  the  places  of  their  former  habitation  j 
and  that  the  hush  and  thrill  of  spirit,  which  we  feel  in  them,  may  be 
owing  to  the  overshadowing  presence  of  the  invisible.  8t.  Paul  says, 
'  we  are  compassed  about  with  a  great  cloud  of  witnesses ; '  but  how  can 
they  be  witnesses  if  they  cannot  see  and  be  cognizant  ? " 

From  one  of  her  articles  relating  to  the  E"ew  Year,  we 
select  a  few  of  the  more  touching  paragraphs.  As  signifi- 
cant of  the  subject,  she  commenced  with  this  poetic  quotation ; 

"It  is  a  beautiful  belief, 

That  ever  round  our  head 
Are  hovering,  on  viewless  wings, 
The  spirits  of  the  dead." 

"  One  of  the  deepest  and  most  imperative  cravings  of  the  human 
heart,  as  it  follows  its  beloved  ones  beyond  the  veil,  is  for  some  assur- 
ance that  they  still  love  and  care  for  us.  As  a  German  writer  beauti- 
fully expresses  it,  'Our  friend  is  not  wholly  gone  from  us;  we  see 
across  the  river  of  death,  in  the  blue  distance,  the  smoke  of  his  cot- 
tage;' hence  the  heart,  always  suggesting  what  it  desires,  has  ever 
made  the  guardianship  and  ministration  of  departed  spirits  a  favorite 
theme  of  poetic  fiction. 

"  But  is  it,  then,  fiction  ?  Does  revelation,  which  gives  so  many  hopes 
which  nature  had  not,  give  none  here  ?  Is  there  no  sober  certainty  to 
correspond  to  the  inborn  and  passionate  craving  of  the  soul?  Do 
departed  spirits  in  verity  retain  any  knowledge  of  what  transpires  in 
this  world,  and  take  any  part  in  its  scenes  ?  All  that  revelation  says 
of  a  spiritual  state  is  more  intimation  than  assertion  ;  it  has  no  distinct 
treatise,  and  teaches  nothing  apparently  of  set  purpose,  but  gives  vague, 
o-lorious  images,  while  now  and  then  some  accidental  ray  of  intelligence 
looks  out — • 

*  Like  eyes  of  cherubs  shining 
From  out  the  veil  that  hid  the  ark.' 

"  But  out  of  all  the  different  hints  and  assertions  of  the  Bible,  we 
think  a  better  inferential  argument  might  be  constructed  to  prove  the 
ministration  of  departed  spirits,  than  for  many  a  doctrine  which  has 
passsed  in  its  day  for  the  height  of  orthodoxy.  ^       ^ 

''  What  then?  May  we  look  among  the  band  of  ministering  spirits 
for  our  own  departed  ones?  Whom  would  God  be  more  likely  to  send 
us?  Have  we  in  heaven  a  friend  who  knew  us  to  the  heart  s  core  .''  a 
friend  to  whom  we  have  confessed  our  weaknesses  and  deplored  our 


224  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

griefs  ?  If  we  are  to  have  a  ministering  spirit,  who  better  adapted  '{ 
Have  we  not  niemories  which  correspond  to  such  a  belief?  When  our 
soul  has  been  east  down,  has  never  an  invisible  voice  whispered,  '  There 
is  lifting  up  ? '  Have  not  gales  and  breezes  of  sweet  healing  thought 
been  wafted  over  us,  as  if  an  angel  had  shaken  from  his  wings  the 
odors  of  paradise  ?  Many  a  one,  we  are  confident,  can  remember  such 
things.     And  whence  come  they  ? 

''But  again — there  are  some  spirits  (and  those  of  earth's  choicest) 
to  whom,  so  far  as  enjoyment  to  themselves  or  others  is  concerned,  this 
life  seems  to  have  been  a  total  failure.  A  hard  hand  from  the  first, 
and  all  the  way  through  life,  seoms  to  have  been  laid  upon  them ;  they 
seem  to  live  only  to  be  chastened  and  crushed,  and  we  lay  them  in  the 
grave  at  last  in  mournful  silence.  To  such,  what  a  vision  is  opened  by 
this  belief! 

"They  have  overcome,  have  risen,  are  crowned,  glorified;  but  still 
they  remain  to  us,  our  assistants,  our  comforters,  and  in  every  hour  of 
darkness  their  voice  speaks  to  us :  '  So  we  grieved,  so  we  struggled,  so 
we  doubted;  but  we  have  overcome,  we  have  obtained,  we  have  seen, 
we  have  found ;  and  in  our  victory  behold  the  certainty  of  thy  own." 

In  a  poem  clipped  from  the  IN'ew  York  Independent^  she 
writes  her  clairaudient  experiences  in  Spiritualism,  in  lines 
thus  sweet  and  tender  : 

'♦Those  halting  tones  that  sound  to  you 
Are  not  the  tones  I  hear  ; 
But  voices  of  the  loved  and  lost 
Now  greet  my  longing  ear. 

I  hear  my  angel  mother's  voice  ; 

Those  were  the  words  she  sung ; 
I  hear  my  brother's  ringing  tones, 

As  once  on  earth  they  rung. 

And  friends  that  walk  in  white  above 

Come  'round  me  like  a  cloud. 
And  far  above  those  earthly  notes 

Their  singing  sounds  aloud." 

Rev.  Wm.  E.  Channing's  testimony  : 

"  I  live,  as  did  Simeon,  in  the  hope  of  seeing  a  brighter  day.  I  do 
Bee  gleams  of  dawn,  and  that  ought  to  cheer  me.  I  hope  nothing  from 
increased  zeal  in  urging  an  imperfect,  decaying  form  of  Christianity. 
One  higher,  clearer  view  of  religion  rising  on  a  single  mind,  encourages 
me  more  than  the  organization  of  millions  to  repeat  what  has  been 
repeated  for  ages  with   little  effect.     The  individual  here  is  mightier 


MODERN    SPIRITUALISM  —  CLERICAL    AND    LITERARY.        225 

than  the  world ;  :iud  I  have  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  aspirations  after 
this  purer  truth,  ^h  *  *  *  y^e  need  not  doubt  the  fact,  that 
angels  whose  home  is  heaven,  visit  our  earth,  and  bear  a  part  in  our 
transactions;  and  we  have  good  reason  to  believe  that  if  we  obtain 
admission  into  heaven,  we  shall  still  have  opportunity,  not  only  to  return 
to  earth,  but  to  view  the  operation  of  God  in  distant  spheres,  and  be 
his  ministers  in  other  worlds." 

Bayard  Taylor's  testimony : 

Referring,  in  the  New  York  Mercury,  to  ''  mysterious 
incidents,"  happening  upon  the  Pacific  coast,  and  in  other 
countries,  as  singular  personal  experiences  of  his  own,  Mr. 
Taylor  writes : 

*'  Let  skeptical,  hard,  matter-of-fact  men  talk  as  they  may,  there  is  a 
lingering  belief  in  the  possibility  of  occasional  communication  between 
the  natural  and  the  supernatural — the  visible  and  the  invisible  world — 
inherent  in  human  nature.  There  are  a  few  persons  whose  lives  do  not 
contain  at  least  some  few  occurrences,  which  are  incapable  of  being 
satisfactorily  explained  by  any  known  laws — remarkable  presentiments, 
coincidences,  and  sometimes  apparitions,  even,  which  seem  to  be  beyond 
the  reach  of  accident  or  chance,  and  overcome  us  with  a  special  wonder." 

"  It  was,  perhaps,  an  hour  past  midnight,  along  the  foot-hills  of  the 
Nevadas,  when,  as  I  lay  with  open  eyes  gazing  into  the  eternal  beauty 
of  Night,  I  became  conscious  of  a  deep,  murmuring  sound,  like  that 
of  a  rising  wind.  I  looked  at  the  trees;  every  branch  was  unmoved — 
yet  the  sound  was  increased,  until  the  air  of  the  lonely  dell  seemed  to 
vibrate  with  its  burden.  A  strange  feeling  of  awe  and  expectancy 
took  possession  of  me.  Not  a  dead  leaf  stirred  on  the  boughs;  while 
the  mighty  sound — a  choral  hymn,  sung  by  ten  thousand  voices- 
swept  down  over  the  hills,  and  rolled  away  like  retreating  thunder  over 
the  plain.  It  was  no  longer  the  roar  of  the  wind.  As  in  the  wander- 
ing prelude  of  an  organ  melody,  note  trod  upon  note  with  slow,  majes- 
tic footsteps,  until  they  gathered  to  a  theme,  and  then  came  in  the 
words,  simultaneously  chanted  by  an  immeasurable  host:  '  Vivani 
terrestrise ! '  The  air  was  filled  with  the  tremendous  sound,  which 
seemed  to  sweep  near  the  surface  of  the  earth,  in  powerful  waves, 
without  echo  or  reverberation. 

"  Suddenly,  far  overhead,  in  the  depths  oi'  the  sky,  rang  a  single, 
clear,  piercing  voice  of  unnatural  sweetness.  Beyond  the  reach  of 
human  organs,  or  any  human  instrument,  its  keen  alto  pierced  the 
firmament  like  a  straight  white  line  of  electric  fire.  As  it  shot  down- 
ward, gathering  in  force,  the  vast  terrestrial  chorus  gradually  dispersed 
irito  silence,  and  only  that  one  unearthly  sound  remained.  It  vibrater^ 
slowly  into  the  fragment  of  a  melody,  unlike  any  which  had  ever  reached 
my  ears — a  long  undulating  cry  of  victory  and  of  joy;  while  the  words 
'  Vivat  Caelum ! '  were  repeated  more  and  more  faintly,  as  the  voice 
15 


226  DOCTRINES   OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

slowly  with  3rew,  like  a  fading  beam  of  sunset,  into  the  abysses  of  the 
stars.  Then  all  was  silent.  I  was  undeniably  awake  at  the  time,  and 
could  recall  neither  fact,  reflection,  nor  fancy  of  a  nature  to  suggest 
the  sounds.  *  *  >i=  Hqw  does  one  faculty  of  the  brain  act,  so  far 
beyond  our  conscious  knowledge,  as  to  astound  us  with  the  most 
unexpected  images  ?  Why  should  it  speak  in  the  Latin  tongue  ?  How 
did  it  compose  music — which  would  be  as  impossible  for  me  as  to  write 
a  Sanscrit  poem  ?  " 

Rev.  G.  H.  Hepworth's  testimony : 

As  a  representative  of  liberal  Unitariauism,  this  clergyman 
has  few  superiors.  His  sainted  mother,  a  medium,  lived  and 
passed  to  the  better-land  a  confirmed  Spiritualist.  In  a 
funeral  sermon,  after  Mr.  Hepworth  had  cited  sundry  cases 
of  mediumship  in  the  Scriptures,  the  case  of  Joan  of  Arc, 
Socrates,  Luther,  Swedenborg  and  Indian  medicine  men,  he 
remarked : 

"  I  have  been  greatly  interested  in  the  new  sect,  or  denomination, 
that  has  come  into  existence  in  the  last  few  years.  Its  members  call 
themselves  Spiritualists.  Fifteen  years  ago  they  were  laughed  at;  now^ 
who  laughs  at  them?  Then,  few  had  ever  heard  of  such  a  system  of 
doctrines;  now,  they  number  their  converts  by  millions — they  tell  me 
that  there  are  six  millions  of  believers,  so-called,  in  the  United  States 
alone — and  these  converts  belong  to  all  classes  of  society,  from  the 
poorest  to  the  richest  and  most  learned.  They  have  thirty  journals 
devoted  to  the  propagation  of  their  faith.  They  have  a  library  of  five 
hundred  volumes  advocating  their  sectarianism.  The  moment  your  eye 
glances  over  these  figures,  you  ask,  Why  is  this  ?  The  answer  is  plain  ; 
first,  because  the  doctrine  of  communion  has  put  off"  its  oppressive  robes 
of  selfishness  and  personal  aggrandizement,  and  put  on  the  white  garments 
of  good  news  to  the  world  ;  and  second,  because  nothing  is  more  evident 
to  my  mind  than  that  the  world  longs  to  believe,  and  needs  to  believe, 
something  of  this  sort.  It  is  essential  to  our  religious  well-being.  The 
very  minute  that  terrible  desolation  enters  a  house  and  robs  the  family 
of  a  loved  member,  leaving  as  a  sacred  memento  of  the  past  only  the 
'  vacant  chair,'  the  holiest  part  of  our  human  natures  looks  up  to 
heaven  with  a  dim,  vague  expectation,  with  a  belief  that  has  never 
taken  a  definite  shape,  perhaps,  that  though  we  cannot  see  them,  they 
do  see  and  know  us.  *  *  *  *  I  have  the  very  firmest  faith  in 
that  kernel  of  inspiration  which  has  given  to  the  sect  all  its  value,  the 
assertion  that  heaven  is  close  to  us,  and  that  its  inhabitants  walk  the 
earth  both  when  we  wake  and  when  we  sleep.  It  seems  to  me  that  this 
truth  is  at  the  centre  of  all  true  religion;  and  when  I  bid  the  sect  God- 
speed, it  is  with  the  grateful  feeling  that  it  is  reviving  the  forgotten 
truth  which  the  prophets  and  the  Christ  himself  have  taught  us.  Yes, 
I  do  believe  in  this  possible  communion  with  all  my  heart." 


MODERN    SPIRITUALISM  —  CLERICAL    AND   LITERARY.        227 

Rev.  a.  D.  Mayo's  testimony : 

When  pastor  of  the  Unitarian  Church,  hi  Albany,  N.  Y., 
Mr.  Mayo,  in  an  excellent  article  on  "Transcendentalism 
and  Spiritualism,"  expressed  his  convictions  thus  definitely: 

"  Transcendentalism  has  been  confined  to  the  circles  of  the  cultivated, 
though  in  many  ways  it  is  helping  to  form  the  national  theology.  This 
hiibit  of  thinking  on  religion,  which  has  been  ridiculed  in  every  Evan- 
gelical pulpit  and  newspaper  as  the  essence  of  absurdity  and  infidelity, 
is  simply  the  American  cultivated  rendering  of  the  words  of  Jesus — 
'  The  kingdom  of  God  is  within  you.'  It  is  a  protest  against  the  ban- 
ishment of  God  from  nature  and  the  soul ;  an  assertion  that  the  Deity 
lives  in  America  as  he  did  in  Palestine,  and  underlies  our  conscious- 
ness as  surely  as  that  of  Moses  and  Isaiah.  To  it  we  are  indebted  for 
the  substitution  of  the  simple  doctrine  of  Jesus  concerning  Universal 
Inspiration,  in  place  of  the  worn-out  machinery  of  the  orthodox  Holy 
Spirit.  *  *  *  But  it  is  not  as  a  body  of  people  interested  in  mes- 
meric media,  that  this  large  religious  denomination,  now  numbering 
4,000,000  of  disciples,  chiefly  concerns  the  observer  of  American  theol- 
ogy, but  as  an  exhibition  of  the  popular  tendencies  of  thought  on 
religion.  Spin'tuulism  is  a  natural  awakening  of  the  American  masses 
to  the  doctririe  of  the  Immortal  Life  taught  hy  Jesus.  This  movement 
is  mightily  shaking  the  American  church  ;  severing  great  ecclesiastical 
bodies,  rending  churches,  depopulating  fashionably  furnished  temples, 
and  every  year  coming  up  with  increased  assurance  to  demand  of  the 
popular  theology  an  account  of  its  stewardship.  A  portion  of  the 
churches  have  welcomed  it,  and  we  will  be  saved  by  their  wisdom;  but 
woe  to  the  sect  or  church  that  sets  its  face  against  it.  It  is  not  to  be 
stayed  by  criticism  from  a  theological  or  aesthetical  point  of  view. 
We  shall  learn  out  of  it  what  it  means  in  the  19th  century  to  helicvc  in 
the  immortality  of  the  soid  ;  and  it  will  be  found  that  this  doctrine  will 
come  to  us  fraught  with  vaster  relations,  suggesting  larger  duties,  and 
elevating  with  nobler  aspirations,  than  to  the  darkened  masses  of  the 
early  ages  of  Heathenism  or  middle  ages  of  Christianity.  *  *  * 
Invisible  hands  leave  upon  our  tables  gifts  of  faith  and  deathless  love 
and  immortal  hope,  of  which  our  fairest  Christmas  flowers  and  our 
greenest  wreaths  are  but  withered  and  vanished  types.  The  pavement 
is  thronged  with  a  mighty  host  that  crowds  no  hasty  passenger,  and 
speaks  in  no  audible  voice,  but  all  the  time  holds  sweet  converse  with 
the  hearts  of  them  that  go  to  and  fro.  The  school  and  the  senate,  and 
the  places  where  men  congregate  for  the  serious  work  of  life,  have  their 
empty  chairs ;  empty  to  our  mortal  vision,  yet  to  the  eye  of  the  soul 
filled  with  forms  of  unearthly  wisdom  and  dignity  and  grace.  I  preach 
not  to-day  to  this  congregation  alone;  but  this  church  is  thronged  and 
overflowed,  yea,  the  whole  air  is  populous  with  an  audience  you  cannot 
see;  for  every  beloved  spirit  that  has  left  its  mark  on  mine,  and  every 
weary  and  stricken  soul  that  I  have  tried  in  feebleness  to  help,  and 


228  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

every  countenance  that  only  for  once  has  gleamed  out  in  spiritual  recog- 
nition from  the  strangest  crowd ;  all  who  have  heard  my  words  on  earth 
will  hear  them  no  more ;  all  whose  words  I  have  heard  for  the  last  time 
in  this  valley  of  mortality,  all  are  here  to-day." 

When  a  few  more  of  the  "  Rulers  of  the  Pharisees  have 
believed " — when  a  few  more  esteemed  great,  gifted  and 
reputable,  as  guaged  by  the  world's  standard,  openly  avow 
their  knowledge  of  a  future  existence  through  modern  spir- 
itual phenomena,  certain  clergy  will  re-affirm  their  once 
brave  utterances  breathed  in  moments  of  inspiration,  and 
stoutly  aver  that  early  in  the  resurrection  morning  of  Amer- 
ican Spiritualism,  they  were  present  and  among  the  first  to 
proclaim  it  as  a  *'  natural  awakening  of  the  masses  to  the 
doctrine  of  immortality !  **  Spiritualists  must  keep  their 
chain  of  historic  records  bright  against  that  prophetic  day, 
when  the  "priests  of  my  people  shall  be  brought  into 
judgment." 

Eev.  Gr.  W.  Skinner's  testimony : 

"  No  matter  what  explanation  we  may  give  thereof,  the  facts  of  what 
is  called  modern  Spiritualism  have  ever  been  in  existence.  To  deny 
them  is  idle;  to  ignore  them  is  trifling;  to  ridicule  them  is  to  exhibit 
our  own  weakness. 

"  What  shall  we  do  with  the  facts  ?  The  records  of  all  times 
mention  them ;  the  Bible  is  full  of  them  ;  they  are  said  to  be  happen- 
ing all  about  us  to-day.  The  movement  of  modern  Spiritualism,  by 
some,  is  supposed  to  rest  solely  on  these  phenomena.  This  question  of 
Spiritualism  will  yet  be  a  greater  disturbing  element  in  the  religious 
world  than  it  is  at  present.  These  wonderful  facts  will  interest  the 
curious  and  engage  the  attention  ->f  the  candid;  and  from  them  much 
light  may  be  shed  on  obscure  natural  laws.  The  intelligent  masses  of 
America  want  more  rational  ideas  of  God,  of  the  scul,  and  of  our 
future  life." 

Rev.  G.  S.  Gowdy's  testimony: 

"  I  have  no  means  of  determining  definitely  what  portion  of  our 
Universalist  preachers  are  Spiritualists.  *  *  ^  *  Pop  one,  I 
believe  that  .y)irits  communicafe  with  mortals.  I  have  not  changed  my 
mind  upon  this  subject  since  my  controversy  with  Bro.  Hunt." 


MODERN    SPIRITUALISM  —  CLERICAL   AND    LITERARY.        229 

Rev.  Dr.  Eli  Ballou's  testimony : 

"  We  believe  it  as  probable  that  all  angels  in  the  spirit-world,  or  in 
the  spheres  above  us,  were  once  men  in  the  flesh  ;  and  that  when 
necessary,  and  under  favorable  circumstances,  angels  from  the  world  of 
spirits  have  and  <lo  communicate  with  the  spirits  in  the  flesh." 

Rev.  Adin  Ballou's  testimony : 

On  page  38,  of  a  volume  published  by  this  clergyman, 
several  years  since,  is  found  this  clear  statement — 

"So,  then,  there  is  an  exquisitely  subtle  element  *  *  *  *  communi- 
cable from  one  soul  to  another,  under  appropriate  conditions,  and  thereby 
the  two  souls  come  into  rapport^  as  the  French  call  it,  or  soul-communi- 
cation. The  process  whereby  this  is  efiected  is  called  mesmerising, 
magnetizing  or  psychologizing.  Its  results  are  mesmeric  and  psycho- 
logical phenomena  of  every  grade  and  variety,  from  the  lowest  som- 
nambulism, to  the  highest  clairvoyance.  Again,  I  ask,  does  the  objector 
believe  in  all  this  as  demonstrable  between  human  spirits  in  the  flesh  ? 
Yes.  Very  well;  so  do  I.  *  *  *  I  have  laid  down,  as  a  part  of 
my  doctrine,  that  these  mesmeric,  clairvoyant,  and  psychological  phe- 
nomena sometimes  proceed  from  spirits  in  the  flesh,  and  sometimes  from 
departed  spirits;  always,  however,  in  accordance  with  spiritual  laws, 
common,  more  or  less  to  the  whole  universe  of  souls.  I  have  also  taken, 
the  position  that  phenomena  caused  by  souls  in  the  body  sometimes  mix 
with  those  caused  by  departed  souls,  and  that  thus  the  loicer  are  liable 
to  be  mistaken  for  the  higher.  Here  I  am  but  one  step  ahead  of  the 
objector  in  my  credulity.  He  believes  in  marvels,  utterly  incredible  to 
himself  a  few  years  ago,  caused  by  mesmerism,  clairvoyance,  and  psy- 
chological influence,  exerted  by  soul  on  soul  in  the  flesh.  Having  been 
strained  up  by  irresistible  evidence  to  this  height  of  faith,  he  now 
obstinately  denies  that  departed  spirits  ever  mesmerise,  magnetize,  or 
spiritize  susceptible  persons  in  the  body;  that  they  ever  exert  psycho- 
logic influences  over  them  to  render  them  media ;  that  they  ever  cause 
ant/  of  the  phenomena  purporting  to  be  spirit  manifestations.  Wh}^  ? 
Because  mesmerism,  clairvoyance,  and  psychological  influence  take  place 
between  soul  and  soul  in  the  body,  and  these  may  possibly  account  for 
all  higher  phenomena  of  the  same  nature.  Most  lame  and  impotent 
conclusions  !  Some  of  the  phenomena  in  question  may  be  thus  accounted 
for,  but  not  the  more  important  and  peculiarly  distinctive  manifestions. 
^  ^  ^  Departed  spirits  have  a  higher  mesmeric,  magnetic,  or  psy- 
chologic power  than  have  mortals  of  a  corresponding  grade.  Facts  have 
proved  this  in  many  remarkable  cases.  It  will  yet  be  demonstrated  to 
the  co:viction  of  all  candid  investigators." 


230  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

Rev.  J.  P.  Sanford's  testimony : 

Those  reading  the  "  Monthly  Clarion^''  received  this  infor- 
mation from  the  Rev.  Moses  Hull — 

"  The  last  time  we  saw  Mr.  Sanford,  (a  Universalist  clergyman)  of 
Iowa,  he  told  a  large  audience  in  our  tent  that  he  was  a  Spiritualist. 
Said  he :  '  Persons  may,  by  the  aid  of  their  index  finger,  succeed  in 
turning  up  their  noses  at  Spiritualists,  but  it  is  too  late  in  the  day  to 
think  of  hooting  four  millions  of  people  down.'  " 

Rev.  H.  a.  Reid's  testimony : 

'•  The  real  and  living  verity  of  the  future  life  and  the  spirit-world  is 
a  doctrine  which  can  appeal  confidently  to  the  Bible,  to  history,  and  to 
science,  for  its  substantial  proof  and  reasonable  confirmation. 

''  That  the  inhabitants  of  the  spirit-realm,  both  good  and  bad,  can 
and  do,  under  some  circumstances,  manifest  themselves  to  persons  still 
in  the  flesh,  is  a  doctrine  of  nature,  taught  most  distinctly  in  the  Bible, 
and  proven  by  the  concurrent  testimony  of  every  race  of  mankind,  in 
all  ages  of  the  world. 

"  In  the  spirit  world,  those  having  similar  tastes,  loves  and  desires, 
good  or  bad,  associate  together  by  spontaneous  mutual  attraction  or 
affinity.  And  each  spirit  is  known  by  ali  the  rest  precisely  \s  it  is, 
with  all  its  goodness  or  all  its  badness  unmistakeably  discerned  by 
every  one." 

Rev.  Dr.  Fisk's  testimony : 

"  God,  he  said,  has  use  or  employment  for  all  the  creatures  he  had 
made :  for  every  saint  on  earth,  for  every  angel  in  heaven.  He  would 
that  none  be  idle.  He  has  a  mission  for  every  one.  Angels  and  arch- 
angels, cherubims  and  seraphims,  patriarchs  and  prophets,  apostles  and 
reibrmers,  and  all  the  holy  hosts  of  heaven,  are  his  ministering  spirits, 
frequently  dispatched  to  minister  unto  the  strangers  and  sojourners  of 
earth.  He  sends  forth  these  spirits  to  guide  and  guard  his  contrite 
children  through  the  wilderness  world  to  their  promised  place  at  his 
right  hand. 

"  Oh,  consoling  doctrine  !  Angels  are  around  us.  The  spirits  of  the 
departed  good  encamp  about  our  pathway.  Who  knows  how  many 
times  the  sainted  spirit  of  Paul  has  been  our  guardian-angel,  protecting 
and  defending  us.  Who  can  tell  how  often  Marah's  humble  spirit  has 
surrounded  our  thorny  pathway,  strewing  it  with  heavenly  flowers  and 
the  golden  fruits  of  the  tree  of  life,  and  perfuming  the  itmosphere  we 
breathe  with  celestial  fragrance. 

'*  Who  knows  how  frequently  the  sainted  spirits  of  Benson  and 
Watson  and  Clarke  have  hovered  over  our  minds,  directing  them  to  the 
Bound  doctrines  of  the  Gospel  of  Truth  ;  and  how  often  has  the  fervent 


MODERN    SPIRITUALISM  —  CLERICAL   AND       ITERARY.        231 

spirit  of  Wesley  inspired  us  with  zeal,  and  the  spiiit  of  Luther  with 
holy  boldness  to  contend  earnestly  for  the  faith  once  delivered  to  the 
saints.  And  how  often  has  Bunyan's  blessed  spirit  lingered  around  our 
path,  to  lead  us  on  to  God.  And  who  knows,  brethren,  but  it  is  the 
inspiring  spirit  of  the  flaming  Whitefield,  or  Hall,  or  Chalmers,  that 
sometimes  sets  on  fire  our  stammering  tongues  with  heavenly  eloquence." 

Rev.  H.  Elkin's  testimony : 

"  The  Bible  is  full  of  these  revelations,  sights  and  manifestation?, 
and  if  we  believe  the  Bible,  why  is  it  not  as  easy  to  believe  that  spirits 
can  communicate  with  men  now  as  anciently  ?  If  spirits  ever  could 
appear  unto  men,  they  can  to-day.  If  man  ever  had  intercourse  with 
spirits  he  may  to-day ;  but  no  doubt  certain  physiological  and  psychial 
conditions  are  necessary,  else  all  men  could  hold  intercourse.  Not  all 
men  anciently  could  commune  with  spirits.  Not  all  men  at  the  present 
time  can  commune  with  spirits.  But  the  same  faculty  which  aided 
them  to  see  and  commune  with  spirits  anciently,  can,  if  rightly  devel- 
oped, aid  them  to-day  ;  and  modern  manifestations  are  as  real  as  ancient 
ones. 

"  Spiritualism  comes  to  the  aid  of  the  church  and  they  reject  it.  It 
supplies  to  atheists  and  infidels  the  lacking  evidence  of  immortality,  and 
they  receive  it.  It  thus  resembles  Christianity  in  its  first  movements, 
which  was  rejected  by  professedly  religious  men.  The  doctrine  of 
immortality  must  ultimately  rest  upon  proof,  or  be  rejected.  And  if 
all  the  phenomena  attending  the  modern  movement  be  accounted  for  on 
physiological  grounds,  without  the  intervention  of  spirits,  ancient  phe- 
nomena will  have  to  pass  the  same  ordeal  and  receive  the  same  sentence. 
Whatever  physiological  law  will  account  for  involuntary  polyglot  speak- 
ing and  writing  modernly,  will  account  for  the  speaking  in  unknown 
tongues  anciently.  Whatever  physiological  law  will  account  for  the 
modern  prophecies,  gifts  of  healing,  revelations^  poems,  hymns  and 
doctrines,  will  account  for  the  ecstacies,  prophecies,  gifts  of  healing, 
&c.,  in  ancient  times.  Whatever  physiological  law  will  account  for  the 
apparitions,  or  the  seeing  of  spirits,  lights,  hearing  of  music,  &c., 
modernly,  will  account  for  the  visions  and  voices  heard  anciently. 
Whatever  physiological  law  will  account  for  the  lifting  and  moving  of 
tables,  pianos,  &c.  by  invisible  power,  modernly,  will  account  for  the 
unbarring  of  the  doors  of  Paul's  prison  anciently.  Whatever  physio- 
logical law  will  account  for  John  Hocknel's  seeing  Ann  Lee's  spirit 
when  it  left  the  body,  wafted  upward  in  a  golden  chariot  drawn  by 
white  horses,  and  scores  of  similar  cases,  when  spirits  have  been  seen  to 
leave  their  earthly  bodies,  wafted  upward  by  a  convoy  of  angels,  mod- 
ernly, will  account  for  the  translation  of  Enoch,  and  Elijah,  and  the 
ascension  of  Christ,  anciently.  Whatever  physiological  law  will  account 
for  Henry  Gordon's  being  carried  through  the  air,  by  inviBible  power 
from  a  sofa,  across  the  room,  and  put  upon  a  bed,  modernly,  will  account 
for  Jesus'  walking  upon  the  sea,  anciently." 


232  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

Rev.  J.  H.  Tuttle's  testimony : 

This  Uuiversalist  clergyman,  reviewing  a  camp-meeting 
discourse  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Mattison,  says,  inquiringly: 

"  How  do  3'ou  KNOW  that  the  soul,  when  it  leaves  the  body,  departs 
far  away  ?  and  does  not  return  ?  Solomon  says  the  '  Spirit  shall  return 
unto  God  who  gave  it — is  GoD  so  far  away  ?  One  would  think  so 
from  the  screaming  effort  your  brethren  on  the  camp-ground  made  to 
enable  him  to  hear  their  prayers!  In  the  Bible,  we  can  point  out 
numerous  instances  where  spiritual  beings  talked  and  communed  with 
mortals;  where,  too,  they  assumed  a  form  and  were  visible.  If  spirits 
cannot  return,  how  did  Moses  and  Elijah  appear  to  Peter,  James  and 
John  on  the  Mount  ?  If  you  reply  that  this,  and  other  instances  of 
the  kind  mentioned  in  the  Bible,  were  special  interpositions  of  Provi- 
dence, exceptions  to  a  general  law,  we  ask  again.  How  do  you  know 
this  ?  An  angel  appeared  to  John  the  revelator.  (See  Rev.  22,  8th.) 
If  you  reply  that  this  was  not  a  spirit  which  had  once  been  in  the  fle.sh, 
then  we  ask  you  to  read  the  following  and  learn  your  mistake  :  '  And  1 
John  saw  these  things,  and  heard  them;  and  when  I  had  heard  and 
seen,  I  fell  down,  to  worship  before  the  feet  of  the  angel,  which  showed 
me  these  things.  Then  saith  he  unto  me,  see  thou  do  it  not:  for  I  am 
thy  fellow  servant,  and  of  thy  brethren  the  Prophet)^,  and  of  them  which 
keej-)  the  sayings  of  this  hook:'  Paul,  in  Heb.  1st,  14th,  says:  'Arc 
they  not  all,  (i.  e.  angels,)  ministering  spirits,  sent  forth  to  minister 
'.into  them  who  shall  be  heirs  of  salvation?'  From  these,  and  other 
passages,  it  is  plain  that  spirits  do  come  and  minister  unto  us;  and 
therefore,  we  have  little  regard  for  the  speculations  of  man  to  the 
contrary." 

Rev.  W.  Ker's  testimony  : 

The  gentleman  criticising  this  clergyman's  recently  pub 
lished  work,  pens  the  following  meaning  paragraph : 

"  The  writer  of  these  pages  has,  for  a  length  of  time,  bestowed  great 
attention  upon  the  subject,  and  is  in  a  position  to  affirm  with  all  confi- 
dence, from  his  own  experience  and  repeated  trials,  that  the  alleged 
phenomena  of  Spiritualism  are,  by  far  the  most  part,  the  products 
neither  of  imposture  nor  delusion.  They  are  true,  and  that  to  the 
fullest  extent.  Nay,  the  marvels  which  he  himself  has  witnessed  in  the 
private  retirement  of  his  own  home,  with  only  a  few  select  friends,  and 
without  having  even  so  much  as  ever  seen  a  public  medium,  are  in  many 
respects  fully  equal  to  any  of  the  startling  narratives  which  have 
appeared  in  print.  He  has  found  that  there  is  an  intelligence  behind, 
or  under,  those  varied  manifestations,  which  can  read  our  inmost 
thoughts;  can  in  many  cases  truly  predict  coming  events;  can  tell  what 
maybe  at  the  moment    passing  in  distant  places;  can  answer  mental 


MODERN   SPIRITUALISM  —  CLERICAL    AND    LITERARY.        283 

questions;  and  which,  in  his  experience,  has  not  only  replied  coirectly 
to  those  queries,  but  even  to  the  secret  thoughts  and  unspoken  desires 
which  gave  rise  to  them." 

Washington  Irvinq's  testimony; 

"What  could  be  more  consoling  than  the  idea,  that  the  souls  of  those 
wo  once  loved  were  permitted  to  return  and  watch  over  our  welfare  ? — 
that  affectionate  and  guardian  spirits  sat  by  our  pillows  when  we  slept, 
keeping  a  vigil  over  our  most  helpless  hours  ? — tluit  beauty  and  inno- 
cence which  had  languished  into  the  tomb,  yet  smiled  unseen  around 
us,  revealing  themselves  in  those  blessed  dreams  and  visions  wherein 
we  live  over  again  the  hours  of  past  endearments  ?  A  belief  of  this 
kind  would,  I  think,  be  a  new  incentive  to  virtue,  rendering  us  circum- 
spect, even  in  our  most  secret  moments,  from  the  idea  that  those  we 
once  loved  and  honored  were  invisible  witnesses  of  all  our  actions. 

"  I  see  nothing  in  it  (Spiritualism)  that  is  incompatible  with  the 
tender  and  merciful  nature  of  our  religion,  or  revolting  to  the  wishes 
iiud  affections  of  the  heart. 

"  My  mind  has  been  crowded  by  fancies  concerning  these  beings. 
Are  there  indeed  such  beings  ?  Is  this  space  between  us  and  the  Deity 
filled  up  by  innumerable  orders  of  spiritual  beings,  forming  the  same 
gradations  between  the  human  soul  and  divine  perfection  that  we  see 
prevailing  from  humanity  down  to  the  merest  insect  ?  It  is  a  sublime 
and  beautiful  doctrine  of  the  early  fathers,  that  there  are  guardian 
angels  appointed  to  watch  over  cities  and  nations,  to  take  care  of  good 
men,  and  to  guard  and  guide  the  steps  of  helpless  infancy.  Even  the 
doctrine  of  departed  spirits  returning  to  visit  the  scenes  and  beings 
which  were  dear  to  them  during  the  body^s  existence,  though  it  has 
been  debased  by  the  absurd  superstitions  of  the  vulgar,  in  itself  is 
awfully  solemn  and  sublime." 

Charlotte  Bronte's  testimony : 

The  biographer  of  this  talented  writer,  Mrs.  Gaskell, 
epeaking  of  her  mode  of  composition  in  "Jane  Eyre,"  says  : 

"  I  remember,  however,  many  little  particulars,  which  Miss  Bront<S 
gave  me,  in  answer  to  my  inquiries  respecting  her  mode  of  composition, 
&c.  She  said  that  it  was  not  every  day  that  she  could  write.  Some- 
times weeks,  or  even  months,  elapsed,  before  she  felt  that  she  had  any- 
thing to  add  to  that  portion  of  her  story,  which  was  already  written 
Then,  some  morning  she  would  waken  up,  and  the  progress  of  her  tal« 
lay  clear  and  bright  before  her  in  distinct  vision." 


234  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

These  extracts,  selected  almost  at  randon.,  reveal  hei 
mediumsliip  and  Spiritualism  : 

"  Presentiments  are  strange  things  !  and  so  are  sympathies ;  and  so  are 
signs.  I  never  laughed  at  presentiments  in  my  life  ;  because  1  have  had 
strange  ones  of  mi/  own.  *  *  * 

"  Besides  this  earth,  and  besides  the  race  of  men,  there  is  an  invisible 
world  and  a  kingdom  of  spirits  :  that  world  is  around  us,  for  it  is  every- 
where ;  and  those  spirits  watch  us,  fur  they  are  commissioned  to  guard 
us ;  and  if  we  were  dying  under  pain  and  shame,  if  scorn  smote  us  on 
all  sides,  and  hatred  crushed  us,  angels  see  our  tortures,  recognize  our 
innocence,  (if  innocent  we  be,)  and  God  waits  only  the  separation  of 
spirit  from  flesh  to  crown  us  with  a  full  reward.  Why,  then,  should  we 
ever  sink  overwhelmed  with  distress,  when  life  is  so  soon  over,  and 
death  is  so  certain  an  entrance  to  happiness — to  glory?" 

Her  biographer  makes  the  farther  record: 

"  Some  one  conversing  with  her  once  objected,  in  my  presence,  to 
that  part  of  Jane  Eyre^  in  which  she  hears  Rochester's  voice  crying 
out  to  her  in  a  great  crisis  of  her  life,  he  being  many,  many  miles 
distant  at  the  time.  I  do  not  know  what  incident  was  in  Miss  Bronte's 
recollection,  when  she  replied,  in  a  low  voice,  drawing  in  her  breath, 
'  But  it  is  a  true  thing;  it  really  happened.'  " 

Horace  Greeley's  testimony : 

!N"oting  the  *'  Recollections  of  a  busy  Life,"  this  politician 
and  conservative  moralist,  in  reference  to  attending  spiritual 
seances  with  'N.  P.  Willis,  M'lle  Jenny  Lind,  and  others 
honored  in  the  literary  and  musical  world,  writes  : 

"  I  never  saw  a  '  spirit  hand,'  though  persons  in  whose  veracity  I 
have  full  confidence  assure  me  that  they  have  done  so,  But  I  have  sat 
with  three  o-thers  around  a  small  table,  with  every  one  of  our  eight 
hands  lying  plainly,  palpably,  on  that  table,  and  heard  rapid  writing 
with  a  pencil  on  paper,  which,  perfectly  white,  we  had  just  previously 
placed  under  that  table ;  and  have,  the  next  minute,  picked  up  that 
paper  with  a  sensible,  straight-forward  message  of  twenty  to  fifty  words 
fairly  written  tliereon.  I  do  not  say  by  whom,  or  by  what  said  message 
was  written ;  yet  I  am  quite  confident  that  none  of  the  persons  present, 
who  were  visible  to  mortal  eyes,  wrote  it.         *         * 

"The  'mediums*  are  often   children  of  tender  years,  who  had  no 
such  training,  have  no  special  dexterity,  and  some  of  whom  are  known 
to  be  awkward  and  cluTusy  in  their  movements.     The  jugglery  hypoth 
esis   utterly  fails  to  account  for  occurrences  which  I   have  personally 
witnessed,  to  say  nothing  of  others. 


MODERN    SPIRITUALISM  —  CLERICAL    AND    LITERARY.        '235 

"  The  failures  of  the  '  mediums '  were  more  convincing  to  my  m'.nd 
than  their  successes.  A  juggler  can  do  nearly  as  well  at  one  time  as 
another;  but  I  have  known  the  most  eminent  '  mediums'  npend  a  long 
evening  in  trying  to  evoke  the  '  spiritual  phenomena,'  without  a  gleam 
of  success.  I  have  known  this  to  occur  when  they  were  particularly 
anxious — and  for  obviously  good  reasons — to  astound  and  convince 
those  who  were  present  and  expectant;  yet  not  even  the  faintest  '  rap' 
could  they  scare  up.  Had  they  been  jugglers  they  could  not  have 
failed  so  utterly,  ignominiously.  *  =i'-  *  All  that  we  have  learned 
of  them  (the  spirits)  has  added  little  or  nothing  to  our  knowledge, 
unless  it  be  enabling  us  to  answer  with  more  confidence,  that  old, 
momentous  question,  If  a  man  die,  shall  he  live  again  ?  The  only 
certain  conclusion  to  which  my  mind  has  been  led  in  the  premises,  is 
forcibly  set  forth  by  Shakespeare  in  the  words  of  the  Danish  prince : 

'  There  are  more  things  in  heaven  and  earth,  Horatio, 
Than  are  dreamt  of  in  your  philosophy.' " 

Margaret  Fuller's  testimony: 

"  As  to  the  power  of  holding  intercourse  with  spirits  emancipated 
from  our  present  sphere,  we  see  no  reason  why  it  should  not  exist,  and 
do  some  reason  why  it  should  rarely  be  developed,  but  none  why  it 
should  not  sometimes.  These  spirits  are,  we  all  believe,  existent  some- 
how ;  and  there  seems  to  be  no  good  reason  why  a  person  in  spiritual 
nearness  to  them,  whom  such  intercourse  cannot  agitate  or  engross  so 
that  he  cannot  walk  steadily  in  his  present  path,  should  not  enjoy  it 
when  of  use  to  him." 

Gerritt  Smith's  testimony : 

1^0  mortal — brave,  free  and  generous  as  this  life-long 
reformer — could  be  a  sectarist.  Referring  to  his  "  Sermons 
and  Speeches" — p.  39-40 — we  find  this  statement; 

"  We  are  charged  with  being  Spiritualists.  Some  of  us  are,  and 
some  of  us  are  not  Spiritualists.  But  what  if  we  all  were — still  might 
we  not  all  be  Christians  ?  To  be  a  Spiritualist — that  is,  to  believe  that 
spirits  can  communicate  with  us — is  no  proof  that  a  man  is,  or  is  not,  a 
Christian.  His  cordial  reception,  as  evidenced  in  his  life,  of  the  great 
essential  moral  truths  which  come  to  him,  whether  in  communications 
from  spirits  or  from  any  other  source — this,  and  this  alone,  proves  that 
he  is  a  Christian.  If  Spiritualism  has  been  the  occasion  of  harm  to 
some,  nevertheless  there  are  others  in  whom  it  has  wrought  good.  We 
have  neighbors,  whose  religious  life  has  been  greatly  improved  by  their 
interest  in  Spiritualism.  *  *  *  A  favorite,  and  certainly  a  \ery 
winning  doctrine  of  the  Spiritualists,  is  that  a  wicked  man  attracts  wicked 
spirits,  and  a  good  man  good  ones.      How  protective,  purifying^  and  every 


236  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

way  happy,  must  be  its  iujluence  on  him  who  truly  believes  it!  IIoic 
efficient  the  motive  it  furnishes  to  avoid  a  bad  and  pursue  a  good  life  ! 
*  *  I  must  not  fail  to  add,  iu  this  coanection,  that  the  Spiritualists 
I  met  iu  my  tours  through  the  State,  last  fall,  were  uearly  all  reformers. 
They  had  broken  off  from  both  political  and  ecclesiastical  parties,  and 
were  earnestly  and  openly  devoting  themselves  to  the  abolition  of  sec- 
tarianism, slavery,  intemperance,  and  other  wrongs.  I  have  no  doubt 
that,  in  proportion  to  their  numbers,  Spiritualists  cast  tenfold  as  many 
MOtes  for  the  abolition  and  temperance  ticket  as  did  others.  Surely 
such  a  fact  is  highly  commendatory  of  the  influence  of  Spiritualism. 

Mrs.  Stanton,  of  the  Revolution,  writing  of  a  visit  to  Mrs. 
Qerritt  Smith  and  her  sanctuary  sacred  to  angel  converse, 

says : 

"  This  is  x\nn  Fitzhugh,  the  wife  of  Grerritt  Smith,  and  this  is  the 
place  where  she  communes  with  the  invisible  world,  with  the  spirits  of 
just  men  and  women  made  perfect  through  sufiering.     Here  she  reads 
Davis  and  Harris,  and  discusses  the  doctrines  of  modern  Spiritualism 
in  which  she  is  a  firm  believer." 

William  Lloyd  Garrison's  testimony: 

^'  As  the  manifestations  have  spread  from  house  to  house,  from  city 
to  city,  from  one  part  of  the  country  to  the  other,  across  the  Atlantic 
into  Europe,  till  now  the  civilized  world  is  compelled  to  acknowledge 
their  reality,  however  diverse  in  accounting  for  them — as  these  mani- 
festations continue  to  increase  in  variety  and  power,  so  that  all  suspicion 
of  trick  or  imposture  becomes  simply  absurd  and  preposterous — and  as 
every  attempt  to  find  a  solution  for  them  in  some  physical  theory  relat- 
ing to  electricity,  the  odic  force,  clairvoyance,  and  the  like,  has  thus  far 
proved  abortive — it  becomes  every  intelligent  mind  to  enter  into  an 
investigation  of  them  with  candor  and  fairness,  as  opportunity  may  offer, 
and  to  bear  such  testimony  in  regard  to  them  as  the  facts  may  warrant, 
no  matter  what  ridicule  it  may  excite  on  the  part  of  the  uninformed  or 
skeptical.  As  for  ourselves,  we  have  been  in  no  haste  to  jump  to  a 
conclusion  in  regard  to  phenomena  so  universally  diffused  and  of  so 
extraordinary  a  character.  For  the  last  three  years  we  have  kept  pace 
with  nearly  all  that  has  been  published  on  the  subject ;  and  we  have 
witnessed,  at  various  times,  many  surprising  '  manifestations ;  '  and  our 
conviction  is,  that  they  cannot  be  accounted  for  on  any  other  theory 
than  that  of  spiritual  agency." 

Rev.  Dr.  G.  Townsend's  testimony: 

*'  So  completely  has  the  skeptical  philosophy  of  the  day  pervaded 
society,  that  even  'Amon^  professed  Christians^  he  would  now  be  esteemed 
a  visionary  who  si  ould  venture  to  declare  his  belief  in  this  most  favorite 


MODERN    SPIRITUALISM  —  CLERICAL    AND    LITERARY.         237 

tenet  of  the  ancient  Church.  The  early  fathers  regarded  the  ministry 
of  angels  as  a  consolinj^  and  beautiful  doctrine,  and  so  much  at  that 
time  was  it  held  in  veneration,  that  the  founders  of  Christianity  cau 
tioned  their  early  converts  against  permitting  their  reverence  to  degen- 
erate iuto  adoration.  We  now  go  to  the  opposite  extreme,  aud  seldom 
think  of  their  existence;  yet  what  is  to  be  found  in  this  belief,  even  if 
the  Scriptures  had  not  revealed  it,  which  is  contrary  to  reason?" 

Rev.  Dr.  A.  Barne's  testimony ; 

"  In  this  doctrine,  the  ministry  of  spirits,  there  is  nothing  absurd. 
It  is  no  more  impossible  that  angels  should  be  employed  to  aid  men, 
than  that  one  man  should  aid  another;  certainly  not  as  impossible  as 
that  the  Son  of  God  should  come  down  not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but 
to  minister.  Angelic  ministration  '  constitutes  the  beauty  of  the  moral 
arrangements  on  earth.'  '  Is  there  any  impropriety  in  supposing  that 
they  do  now  ivhat  the  Bible  says  they  ever  have  done?" 

The  London  Times  reported  the  Bishop  as  using  the 
following  language,  in  a  Sunday  sermon,  at  Westminster 
Abbey : 

"  There  were  many  important  lessons  to  be  gathered  from  Jacob's 
dream.  The  especial  lesson  taught  was  that  God  constantly  controlled 
our  thoughts,  and  that  we  are  constantly  in  connection  with  the  world 
of  spirits,  whilst  we  think  we  are  far  away  amid  earthly  things. 
He  entreated  those  whose  thoughts  turned  heavenward  not  to  check 
them,  for  they  might  be  certain  that  they  are  enlightened  by  the  same 
glorious  presences  which  cheered  Jacob  in  the  wilderness/' 

Victor  Hugo's  testimony  : 

The  exiled,  yet  loved !  Hugo's  life  has  been  a  strange 
one — so  gentle,  so  rich  and  radiant.  All  nature  seems  to 
have  poured  into  him  her  tributary  streams  of  imagery, 
sympathy,  beauty  and  poetry.  Thus  organized,  it  is  impos- 
sible for  him  to  be  other  than  a  Spiritualist.  In  his  "  Toilers 
of  the  Sea,"  he  writes ; 

"  There  is  a  time  when  the  unknown  reveals  itself  in  a  mysterious 
way  to  the  spirit  of  man.  A  sudden  rent  in  the  veil  of  darkness  will 
make  manifest  things  hitherto  unseen,  and  then  close  again  upon  the 
mysteries  within.  Such  visions  have  occasionally  the  power  to  effect  a 
transfiguration  in  those  whom  they  visit.  They  convert  a  poor  camel- 
driver  into  a  Mahomet;  a  peasant  girl  tending  her  goats  into  a  Joan 
of  Arc.  Solitude  generates  a  certain  amount  of  sublime  exaltation.  * 
♦     *     A  mysterious  lucidity  of  mind  results,  which  converts  the  student 


238  DOCTRINES   OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

into  a  seer,  and  the  poet  into  a  prophet;  herein  we  find  a  key -to  the 
mysteries  of  Horeb,  and  Elron,  and  Ombos  ;  to  the  intoxication  of 
Castalian  laurels,  the  revelations  of  the  month  Biision.  Hence,  too,  we 
have  Pelcia  at  Dodona;  Phenionae  at  Delphos;  Trophonius  in  Zebadea; 
Ezekiel  on  the  Chebar;  and  Jerome  in  the  Thepais  *  *  *  Luther 
holding  converse  with  devils  in  his  garret  at  Wittenburgh;  Pascal 
shuttinsr  out  the  view  of  the  infernal  regions  with  the  screen  of  his 
cabinet ;  the  African  Obi  conversing  with  the  white-faced  God,  Bossum, 
are  each  and  all  the  saine  phenomena,  diversely  interpreted  by  the  minds 
in  which  they  manifest  themselves,  according  to  their  capacity  and 
power,     Luther  and  Pascal  were  grand,  and  are  grand  still.'^ 

In  a  funeral  address  delivered  at  the  interment  of  Emily 
De  Putreu,  this  French  author  said  most  feelingly  : 

"Death  is  the  greatest  of  liberties;  it  is  also  the  furthest  progress. 
Death  is  a  higher  step  for  all  who  have  lived  upon  its  height.  Dazzling 
and  holy  every  one  receives  his  increase,  everything  is  transfigured  in  the 
light  and  by  the  light.  He  who  has  been  no  more  than  virtuous  on  earth 
becomes  beauteous ;  he  who  has  only  been  beauteous  becomes  sublime, 
and  he  who  has  only  been  sublime  becomes  good.  *  >k  h^  rj^-^Q  gQ^l^ 
the  marvel  of  this  great  celestial  departure  which  we  call  death,  is  here. 
Those  who  that  depart  still  remain  near  us — they  are  in  a  world  of  light, 
but  they  as  tender  witnesses  hover  about  our  world  of  darkness.  *  *  * 
The  dead  are  invisible,  but  they  are  not  absent." 

William  Howitt's  testimony : 

This  eminent  man  and  distinguished  author,  so  scholarly 
in  attainment  and  affluent  in  classical  allusion,  continually 
testifies — a  living  apostle — to  a  present  communion  with  the 
spirit- world.  He  wrote  thus  vigorously  last  season  to  the 
English  Dunfermline  Press: 

*  *  "^  *  "  Sir — ^Who  are  the  men  who  have  in  every  country 
embraced  Spiritualism  ?  The  rabble  ?  the  ignorant  ?  the  fanatic  ?  By 
no  means.  But  the  most  intelligent  and  able  men  of  all  classes.  When 
such  is  the  case,  surely  it  becomes  the  '  majority  of  reflecting  men,'  to 
use  the  words  of  your  editor,  to  reflect  on  these  facts.  Let  numbers  go 
for  nothing ;  but,  when  the  numbers  add  also  first  rate  position,  pre-emi- 
nent abilities,  largest  experience  of  men  and  their  doings,  weight  of  moral, 
religious,  scientific,  and  political  character,  then  the  man  who  does  not 
look  into  what  these  declare  to  be  truth,  is  not  a  reflecting,  but  a  very 
foolish  and  prejudiced  man.  Now,  it  is  very  remarkable  that,  when  we 
proceed  to  enumerate  the  leading  men  who  have  embraced  modern  Spir- 
itualism, we  begin  also  to  enumerate  the  pre-eminent  intellects  and  char- 
acters of  the  age.     In  America  you  justly  say  that  the  shrewd  and  honest 


MODERN    SPIRITUALISM  —  CLERICAL   AND    LITERARY.         239 

A.braham  Lincoln  was  a  Spiritualist.  He  was  a  devoted  one.  So  also 
were,  and  are,  the  Hon.  Eobert  Dale  Owen  and  Judge  Edmonds  ;  so  was 
Professor  Hare.  You  are  right  in  all  these  particulars.  In  fact,  almost 
every  eminent  man  in  the  American  Grovernment  is  a  Spiritualist.  Gar- 
rison, whom  the  anti-Spiritualists  were  so  lately  and  enthusiastically  fete- 
ing  in  England,  for  his  zealous  services  in  the  extinction  of  negro  slavery, 
is  an  avowed  Spiritualist.  Horace  Greeley,  the  editor  of  the  New  York 
Tribune^  a  man  whose  masterly,  political  reasoning  has  done  more  than 
any  man  to  direct  the  course  of  American  politics,  is  a  Spiritualist. 
Longfellow,  the  poet,  now  in  England,  and  just  treated  with  the  highest 
honors  by  the  University  of  Cambridge,  and  about  to  be  feted  by  the 
whole  literary  world  of  England,  is,  and  has  long  and  openly  been,  a 
Spiritualist.  But  I  might  run  over  the  majority  of  the  great  names  of 
America.  Turn  to  France.  The  shrewd  Emperor,  the  illustrious  Victoi 
Hugo,  the  sage  and  able  statesman  Guizot,  one  of  the  most  powerful 
champions  of  Christianity,  are  Spiritualists.  So  is  Garibaldi,  in  Italy. 
In  England,  you  might  name  a  very  long  and  distinguished  list  of  men 
and  women,  of  all  classes.  Spiritualists.  If  you  had  the  authority  you 
might  mention  names  which  would  startle  no  little  those  who  afiect  to 
sneer  at  Spiritualism.  It  is  confidently  said  that  a  Spiritualist  sits  on 
the  throne  of  these  realms,  as  we  know  that  such  do  sit  on  those  of  the 
greatest  nations  of  Europe.  We  know  that  the  members  of  some  of  the 
chief  ducal  houses  of  Scotland,  and  of  the  noble  houses  of  Ireland  and 
England,  are  Spiritualists.  Are  all  these  people  likely  to  plunge  their 
heads  and  their  reputations  into  an  unpopular  cause  without  first  looking 
well  into  it?  But  then,  say  the  opponents,  the  scientific  don't  affect  it. 
They  must  greatly  qualify  this  assertion,  for  many  and  eminent  scientific 
men  have  had  the  sense  and  the  courage  to  look  into  it,  and  have  found 
it  a  great  truth.  The  editor  of  the  Dunfermline  Press  remarks  on  your 
observations  regarding  Robert  Chambers,  that  Chamhers'  Journal  of  the 
13th  .of  May  last,  has  a  certain  article  not  flattering  to  Spiritualism. 
True,  but  not  the  less  is  Bobert  Chambers  an  avowed  Spiritualist,  and 
boldly  came  forward  on  the  Home  and  Lyon  trial,  to  express  his  faith  in 
Mr.  Home.  The  editor  might  quote  articles  in  the  Times,  the  Standard, 
the  Star,  and  the  Daily  Telegraph,  against  Spiritualism,  yet  it  is  a  well- 
known  fact  that  on  all  these  journals  some  of  their  ablest  writers  are 
Spiritualists ;  but  is  it  not  always  prudent  for  a  man  to  say  what  he  is. 
This  is  not  an  age  in  love  with  martyrdom. 

******** 

"  Numbers  of  scientific  men  have  embraced  Spiritualism.  Dr.  Hare, 
mentioned  by  you,  was  a  great  electrician,  rated  by  the  Americans  little, 
if  any,  inferior  to  Faraday.  He  did  exactly  what  people  now  want 
scientific  men  to  do.  He  thought  Spiritualism  a  humbug,  and  went 
regularly  into  an  inquiry  in  order  to  expose  it.  But  it  did — as  it  has 
'ione  in  every  case  that  I  have  heard  of,  where  scientific  men  have  gone 
candidly  and  fairly  into  the  examination — after  two  years  of  testing  and 
proving,  convince  him  of  its  truth.  Dr.  Elliotson,  a  very  scientific 
man,  and  for  years  violently  opposed  to  Spiritualism,  so  soon  as  he  was 


240  DOCTRINES    OF   SPIRITUALISTS. 

willing-  to  inquire,  became  convinced,  and  now  blesses  Grod  for  the  know- 
ledf'-e  of  it.     Dr.  Asliburner,  his  fellow  editor  of  the   Zoist,  has  also 
lon^'-  been   an    avowed  Spiritualist.      Mr.  Alfred  Wallace,  a   scientific 
man  and  excellent  naturalist,  who  was  on  the  Amazon  with  Mr.  Bates, 
has  published  his  conviction  of  its  truth.      Sir   Charles  Wheatstone, 
some  time  ago,  on  seeing  some  remarkable  phenomena  in  his  own  house, 
declared  them  real.     And  just  now,  on  the  Home  and  Lyon  trial,  the 
public  have  seen  Mr.  Yarley,  a  man  of  first  rate  science,  the  electrician 
to  the  Electric  and  International  and  the  Atlantic  Telegraph  Companies, 
come  forward  and  make  affidavit  of  his  having  investigated  the  facts  of 
Spiritualism,  and  found  them  real.     Now,  after  such   cases,  why  this 
continual  cry  out  for  examination  by  scientific  men  ?     Scientific  men  of 
the  first  stamp  have  examined  and  reported  that  it  is  a  great  fact.     Sci- 
entific men  by  the  hundred  and  the  thousand  have  done  it,  and  yet  the 
crowd  go  on  crying  for  a  scientific  man.     Why  ?     Simply  because  it  is 
much  easier  to  open  their  mouths  and  bleat  as  sheep  do  in  a  flock  than 
exert  their  minds  and  their  senses.     It  is  time  that  all  this  folly  had  an 
end.     There  are  now  more  Spiritualists  than  would  populate  Scotland 
seven  times  over  at  its  present  scale  of  population  ;  and  surely  the  testi 
mony  of  such  a  multitude,  including  statesmen,  philosophers,  historians, 
and  scientific  men,  too,  is  as  absolutely  decisive  as  any  mortal  matter  can 
be.     And  pray,  my  good  friend,  don't  trouble  yourself  that  your  neigh- 
bors call  you  mad.     You  are  mad  in  most  excellent  company.     All  the 
great  men  of  all  ages  who  have  introduced  or  accepted  new  ideas  were 
mad  in  the  eyes  of  their  cotemporaries.     As  I  have  said,  Socrates  and 
Christ  and  St.  Paul  were  mad ;  Gralileo  was  mad  ;  De  Cans  was  mad  j 
Thomas  Gray,  who  first  advocated  railways,  was  declared  by  the  Edin- 
hurf/h  Review  mad  as  a  march  hare.     They  are  the  illustrious  tribe  of 
madmen  by  whom  the  world  is  propelled,  widened  as  by  Columbus,  and 
enlightened  as  by  Bacon,  Newton,  Des  Cartes,  and  the  rest  of  them,  who 
were  all  declared  mad  in  their  turn.     And  don't  be  anxious  about  Spir- 
itualism.    From  the  first  moment  of  its  appearance  to  this,  it  has  moved 
on  totally  unconcerned  and  unharmed  amidst  every  species  of  opposition, 
misrepresentation,  lying,  and  obstruction,  and  yet  has  daily  and  hourly 
grown,  and  spread,  and  strengthened,  as  if  no  such  evil  infiuences  were 
assailing  it.     Like  the  sun,  it  has  traveled  on  its  course  unconscious  of 
the  clouds  beneath  it.     Like  the  ocean,  it  has  rolled  in  billows  over  the 
slimy  creatures  at  its  bottom,  and  dashed  its  majestic  waves  over  every 
proud  man  who  dared  to  tread  within  its  limits.     And  whence  comes 
this  ?     Obviously,  from  the  hand  which  is  behind  it — the  hand  of  the 
Great  Ruler  of  the  Universe.     For  my  part,  having  long  perceived  this 
great  fact,  I  have  ceased  to  care  what  people  say  or  do  against  Spirit- 
ualism ;  to  care  who  believes  or  does  not  believe ;  who  comes  into  it  or 
stays  out ;  certain  that  it  is  as  much  a  part  of  God's  economy  of  the 
universe  as  the  light  of  the  sun,  and  will,  therefore,  go  on  and  do  itg 
work." 


MODERN    SPIRITUALISM  —  CLERICAL    AND    LITERARY.        241 

Robert  Bell's  testimony : 

This  distinguished  dramatist,  novelist  and  Spiritualist,  of 
England,  wrote  one  of  the  most  graphic  notices  ever  penned 
upon  the  subject  of  spiritual  phenomena,  describing  the  inci- 
dents occurring  in  a  seance  of  Mr.  Home  : 

"  This  Mr.  Thackeray,  then  editor  of  the  Qornhill  Magazine^  ventured 
to  publish  in  the  eighth  number  of  that  journal  (August,  1860),  an 
article  entitled  Stranger  than  Fiction. 

"  Mr.  Thackeray,  in  a  note,  spoke  of  the  writer  '  as  a  friend  of  twenty- 
five  years  standing,  for  whose  good  faith  and  honorable  character  he 
would  vouch.'  Thackeray  was  himself  a  believer  in  Spiritualism,  and 
,with  good  reason.  He  had,  I  am  told,  evidence  of  its  reality  in  his  own 
family  which  made  belief  irresistible.  Mr.  Bell's  narrative  created  great 
commotion  in  the  literary  world. 

"  It  is  true  that  the  writer  was  a  man  of  good  faith  and  honorable 
character,  who  simply  described  what  he  and  several  others  who  were 
present  had  seen  in  a  lady's  drawing-room.  His  assailants,  however, 
knew  that  it  was  a  'great  imposture."  Mr.  Thackeray  and  Mr.  Bell 
thereafter  kept  their  knowledge  of  spiritual  subjects  to  themselves;  but 
Mr.  Bell  had  become  too  firm  a  convert  to  be  indifferent  to  the  spread 
of  the  great  truth,  and  it  was  he  who  quietly  got  together  the  committee 
which  met  in  Mr.  Boucicault's  drawing-room  to  investigate  the  claims  of 
the  Davenports;  and  that  committee,  composed  of  twenty-four  leadino- 
men  in  science  and  literature,  it  will  be  recollected,  declared  upon  the 
suggestion  of  Lord  Bury,  that  '  there  was  no  trickery  in  any  form,  no 
confederates  nor  machinery,  and  certainly  the  phenomena  which  had  taken 
place  in  their  presence  were  not  the  product  of  legerdemain  '  " — London 
Spiritual  Magazine. 

Rev.  E.  C.  Towne's  testimony : 

Preaching  the  funeral  sermon  of  the  great  and  good  John 
Pierpont,  poet  reformer,  and  Spiritualist,  Mr.  Towne  said  : 

'•  Other  men  might  speak  of  peace ;  he  loved  it  not  less  than  they,  but 
so  long  as  there  was  defiant  wrong  on  every  hand,  he  wished  to  be  able 
to  say,  '  I  have  fought  the  good  fight — I  have  kept  the  faith.'  He  can 
say  this  now,  as  few  that  lived  with  him  can.  The  crown  of  the  faithful 
confessor  is  his.  Higher  than  poet,  scholar,  or  orator,  stands  the  honest 
man,  with  his  valiant  confession  of  holy  truth.  When  his  eloquence  is 
forgotten,  when  his  verses  are  no  more  read,  the  undefiled  integrity  of 
John  Pierpont  will  shine  like  a  star  in  the  memory  of  men. 

"  Comparing  our  friend's  position  as  a  Spiritualist  with  that  of  a  crowd 
of  most  able  men  throughout  Christendom  who  adhere  to  Romish  or 
Protestant  orthodoxy,  this  confessor  of  faith,  somewhat  desoised  stands 
16 


42  DOCTRINES    OF   SPIRITUALISTS. 

high  above  them  all.  It  is  necessary  here  to  put  by  the  common  and 
Diore  imperfect  manifestations  of  Spiritualism,  and  also  to  concede  to  a 
mail  of  able  mind  a  large  liberty  of  judgment.  The  common  utterances 
ui  any  faith  would  discredit  it  with  one  who  had  no  sympathy  with  it. 
If  a  man  of  mind  and  character  adopts  a  faith  which  is  supposed  base- 
less, it  is  necessary  to  assume  that  there  may  be  some  mistake  in  this 
supposition.  He  would  be  singularly  at  fault  who  should  think  it  neces- 
sai-y  to  explain  in  the  way  of  apology  Mr.  Picrpont's  adherence  to  Spir- 
itualism. The  fact  does  not  at  all  abate  from  his  credit,  but  on  the 
contrary  to  his  honor. 

"  It  is  too  early  to  vindicate,  without  extended  explanation,  the  provi- 
dential significance  of  the  movement  known  as  Spiritualism.  I  am  not 
myself  competent  to  adequately  criticise  this  movement.  But  I  have  no 
doubt  whatever  that  it  is  to  become  the  most  living  and  most  valuable 
development  of  modern  Christianity.  It  is  working  up  from  the  people, 
from  those  to  whom  no  Chui'ch  penetrated,  and  in  the  day  of  its  full 
power  it  will  be  a  force  in  religious  progress  such  as  no  Church  has  been. 
It  will  bring  to  all  the  Churches  new  life,  in  faith,  hope  and  love.  The 
day  will  come  when  the  devotion  of  our  friend  to  this  movement  will 
mark  him  as  one  on  whom  a  prophetic  spirit  rested.  It  was  in  the  high 
courage  of  a  noble  confessor  that  he  took  this  step,  as  all  the  other  great 
steps  of  his  life." 

Abraham  Lincoln,  generally  considered  an  infidel  by 
evangelical  denominations,  was  a  member  of  no  church,  and 
made  no  profession  of  religion.  His  tendencies  were  all 
towards  Spiritualism  and  German  Rationalism,  as  his  real 
heart-friends  unhesitatingly  testify.  That  he  invited  media 
into  his  presence,  attended  seances^  and  devoted  not  a  little 
time  to  the  investigation  of  Spiritualism,  none  of  even 
ordinary  information  upon  the  subject  deny.  Judge  Edmonds 
delivering  an  oration  in  Hope  Chapel  upon  the  life  of  the 
martyred  President,  spoke  of  his  close  sympathy  with  him 
in  that  divine  philosophy — the  ministry  of  spirits.  Mr. 
Lincoln's  frequent  presentiments  were  to  himself  author- 
itative prophecies : 

"  In  Judge  Pierpont's  address  to  the  jury  at  the  Surratt  trial,  he  said 
he  now  came  to  a  strange  act  in  this  dark  drama — strange,  though  not 
new — BO  wonderful  that  it  seems  to  come  from  beyond  the  veil  that  sepa- 
rates us  from  death.  It  is  not  new,  but  it  is  strange.  All  governments 
are  of  God,  and  for  some  wise  purpose  the  Great  Ruler  of  all,  by  pre- 
sentiments, portents,  bodings,  and  by  dreams,  sends  some  shadowy 
.warning  of  a  coming  dawn  when  a  great  disaster  is  to  befall  a  nation. 


MODERN    SPIRITUALISM  —  CLERICAL   AND   LITERARY.        243 

So  was  it  in  the  days  of  Saul — when  Caesar  was  killed — when  IJrutus 
died  at  Phillippi — so  was  it  when  Christ  was  crucified — so  was  it  when 
Harold  fell  at  the  battle  of  Hastings — so  was  it  when  the  Czar  was 
assassinated — so  was  it  before  the  bloody  death  of  Abraham  Lincoln, 
President  of  the  United  States.  In  the  life  of  Caesar,  by  De  Quincy,  in 
the  life  of  Pompey,  by  Plutarch,  is  given  the  portents  that  came  to  warn 
Pompey.  Here  it  is  we  find  how  Caesar  was  warned.  We  find  it  true 
in  all  cases,  and  never  in  the  whole  history  of  the  world  has  there  been 
a  single  instance  when  the  assassins  of  the  head  of  the  movement  have 
not  been  brought  to  punishment.  The  assassin  of  a  ruler  never  hah 
escaped,  though  he  has  taken  '  the  wings  of  the  morning  and  fled  to  th« 
uttermost  parts  of  the  earth.'  On  the  morning  of  April  14th,  Mr.  Lin- 
coln called  his  cabinet  together.  He  had  reason  to  be  joyful,  but  he  was 
anxious  to  hear  from  Sherman.  Grant  was  here,  and  he  said  '  Sherman 
was  all  right ; '  but  Mr.  Lincoln  feared,  and  related  a  dream  which  he 
had  the  night  before — a  dream  which  he  had  previous  to  Chancellors- 
ville  and  Stone  Kiver,  and  whenever  a  disaster  had  happened.  The 
members  of  the  Cabinet  who  heard  that  relation  will  never  forget  it. 
A  few  hours  afterward  Sherman  was  not  heard  from — but  the  dream  was 
fulfilled.  A  disaster  had  befallen  the  government,  and  Mr.  Lincoln's 
spirit  returned  to  the  God  who  gave  it." 

Incontrovertible  evidences  in  confirmation  of  spiritual 
presences  in  our  midst  to  impress,  inspire  and  communicate 
— testimonies  from  clerical  and  literary  gentlemen — from 
poets,  authors,  priests,  judges  and  honored  senators — are 
nearly  as  numberless  as  stars  in  the  finnament.  Put  the 
inquiry  directly,  however,  to  some  of  the  clergymen — Do 
you  believe  in  Spiritualism  ? — believe  that  departed  spirits 
communicate  with  friends  on  earth  ? — and  piously  declaring 
against  "  physical  manifestations  "  by  way  of  sprinkling  a 
few  grains  of  incense  upon  the  altar  of  a  church-begging 
respectability,  they  will  answer — "  We  believe  in  the  Bible 
ministry  of  angels.''  Down  on  this  slimy  policy — this  con- 
summate cowardice !  Stirringly  writes  the  English  poet, 
Q  erald  Massey ; 

"Out  of  the  light,  ye  Priests,  nor  fling 
Your  dark,  cold  shadows  on  us  longer ! 
Aside  I  thou  world-wide  curse,  call'd  king  1 
The  people's  step  is  quicker,  stronger. 
There's  a  Divinity  within 
That  makes  men  great,  whene'er  they  will  it  t 


244  DOCTRINES    OF   SPIRITUALISTS. 

God  works  with  all  who  dare  to  win, 
And  the  time  has  come — to  reveal  it — 

The  People's  Advent's  coming  I  " 

Spiritualism  has  incarnated  itself  into  our  literature,  art, 
music,  philosophy  and  legislation ;  and  it  gathers  strength 
and  courtly  symmetry  as  it  sweeps  through  the  land,  destined 
to  become  the  universal  religion  of  the  enlightened  world. 

"They  builded  wiser  than  they  knew  ; 
The  conscious  stone  to  beauty  grew." 


^ 


ECTURE    VIII. 


ExEGETICAL       S 


XEGETICAL       pPIRITUALIS  M. 


Phaptei\^  xxiy, 


POETIC  TESTIMONY. 


"Sounding  through  the  dreamy  dimness 
Where  I  faint  and  weary  lay, 
Spake  a  poet :   ♦  I  will  lead  thee 
To  the  land  of  songs  to-day.' 


>  >> 


Sweet  and  heavenly  sings  the  Poet  Laureate  of  Enghard: 

•How  pure  at  heart  and  sound  in  head, 
With  what  divine  affections  bold 
Should  be  the  man  whose  thought  would  hold 
An  hour's  communion  with  the  dead. 

In  vain  shalt  thou,  or  any,  call 

The  spirits  from  their  golden  day. 

Except,  like  them,  thou  too  canst  say 
My  spirit  is  at  peace  with  all." 

Exalted  minds  dwell  in  the  element  ot  the  spiritual. 
The  spiritual  is  the  real.  Poets  are  the  soul's  prophets, 
UnUke  metaphysicians,  they  give  us  the  product  of  their 
spiritual  life  and  intuitive  insight,  and  appeal  to  the  con- 
sciousness and  deep  sympathies  of  humanity  for  the  verifi- 
cation.  Poets  are  divinity-appointed  interpreters,  employing 
the  shadows  of  the  outer  world  to  reveal  the  substance  of  the 
world  within.  From  the  Yedic  hymns  of  the  Hindoos  their 
glory  gleams  all  along  the  pages  of  thought  and  culture. 
Brain,  sunned  from  heaven,  pen  afire  with  truth,  their  lines 
ever  tender,  glow  with  the  fadeless  radiance  of  immortal 

247 


248  DOCTRINES    OF   SPIRITUALISTS. 

love.  Divest  God  of  the  attribute  of  love — disrobe  liter- 
ature of  its  ideal — strip  poetry  of  its  Spiritualism,  and  the 
residuum  is  shells — nothing  but  shells.  The  nature-poet  of 
Galilee,  Jesus,  walked  under  Syrian  skies  a  Spiritualist, 
guarded  by  a  legion  of  angels. 

Want  of  space  warrants  but  a  few  quotations  from  the 
rich  poesy  fields  of  Spiritualism.  Grand  this  apostrophe  of 
Coleridge : 

*'Contemplant  Spirits!   ye  that  hover  o'er 
With  untried  gaze  the  immeasurable  fount 
Ebullient  with  creative  Deity  ! 
And  ye  of  plastic  power,  that  interfused 
Roil  through  the  grosser  and  material  mass 
In  organizing  surge  I     Holies  of  God  I  " 

Longfellow's  testimony  : 

"Some  men  there  are,  I  have  known  such,  who  think 
That  the  two  worlds — the  seen  and  the  unseen, 
The  world  of  matter  and  the  world  of  spirit — 
Are  like  the  hemispheres  upon  our  maps, 
And  touch  each  other  only  at  a  point. 
But  these  two  worlds  are  not  divided  thus. 
Save  for  the  purpose  of  common  speech. 
They  form  one  globe,  in  which  the  parted  seas 
All  flow  together  and  are  intermingled, 
While  the  great  continents  remain  distinct." 
******* 

*'The  spiritual  world 
Lies  all  about  us,  and  its  avenues 
Are  open  to  the  unseen  feet  of  phantoms 
That  come  and  go,  and  we  perceive  them  not 
Save  by  their  influence,  or  when  at  times 
A  most  mysterious  Providence  permits  them 
To  manifest  themselves  to  mortal  eyes.''* 
-*****♦ 

••A  drowsiness  is  stealing  over  me 
Which  is  not  sleep ;  for,  though  I  close  mine  eyes, 
/  am  awake,  and  in  another  world. 
Dim  faces  of  the  dead  and  of  the  absent 
Come  floating  up  before  me." 
***** 

"When  the  hours  of  day  are  numbered. 
And  the  voices  of  the  night 


MODERN   SPIRITUALISM  —  POETIC    TESTIMONY.  249 

Wake  the  better  soul  that  slumber'd, 

To  a  holy,  calm  delight; 
Ere  the  evening  lamps  are  lighted, 

And  like  phantoms  grim  and  tall, 
Shadows  from  the  fitful  fire-light, 

Dance  upon  the  parlor  wall — 

Then  the  forms  of  the  departed 

Enter  at  the  open  door  ; 
The  beloved  ones,  the  true  hearted. 

Come  to  visit  me  once  more; 
And  with  them  the  Being  Beauteous, 

Who  unto  my  youth  was  given 
More  than  all  things  else  to  love  me. 

And  is  now  a  saint  in  heaven. 

With  a  slow  and  noiseless  footstep 

Comes  that  messenger  divine, 
Takes  the  vacant  chair  beside  me. 

Lays  her  gentle  hand  in  mine, 
And  she  sits  and  gazes  at  me. 

With  those  deep  and  tender  eyes. 
Like  the  stars,  so  still  and  saint-like, 

Looking  downward  from  the  skies." 
^         *        *        *        *        * 
—  "As  the  moon  from  some  dark  gate  or  cloud 

Throws  o'er  the  sea  a  floating  bridge  of  light 
Across  whose  trembling  planks  our  mem'ries  crowd 

Into  the  realm  of  mystery  and  light — 

So  from  the  world  of  spirits  there  descends 
A  bridge  of  light,  connecting  it  with  this, 

O'er  whose  unsteady  floor,  that  sways  and  bends. 
Wander  our  thoughts  above  the  dark  abyss." 

Ph(ebe  Gary's  testimony : 

That  influential  weekly,  the  New  York  Independent,  relat- 
ing the  spiritual  experiences  of  Cowper,  subjoins  some  lines 
from  Miss  Gary's  pen,  at  once  poetic  and  appropriate : 

"  The  most  important  events  of  Cowper's  latter  years  were  audibly 
announced  to  him  before  they  occurred.  We  find  him  writing  of  Mrs. 
Urwin's  '  approaching  death,'  when  her  health,  although  feeble,  was  not 
such  as  to  occasion  alarm.  His  lucid  intervals,  and  the  return  of  his 
disorder,  were  announced  to  him  in  the  same  remarkable  manner. 


260  DOCTRINES    OF   SPIRITUALISTS. 

"The  pillow  by  his  tear-drops  wet, 

The  stoniest  couch  that  heard  his  cries, 
Had  near  a  golden  ladder  set 

That  touched  the  skies. 

And  at  the  morning  on  his  bed, 

And  in  sweet  visions  of  the  night, 
Angels,  descending,  comforted 

His  soul  with  light. 

^^  *  *  -x-  *  -St 

And,  as  the  glory  thus  discerned 

His  heart  desired,  with  strong  desire ; 
By  seraphs  touched,  his  lips  have  burned 
With  sacred  fire. 

As  ravens  to  Elijah  bare, 

At  morn  and  eve,  the  promised  bread ; 
So  by  the  spirits  of  the  air 

His  soul  was  fed." 

Mrs.  M.  a.  Livermore's  testimony : 

The  glory  of  genuine  poets  trails  all  along  the  eras  of  art 
and  culture.  Their  inspirations  are  comparable  to  dewdrops 
dripping  from  the  leaves  of  the  "  Tree  of  Life.''  The  gifted 
Mrs.  Livermore,  wife  of  Rev.  J).  P.  Livermore,  and  assistant 
editor  of  the  Neio  Covenanty  sings  the  principles  of  Spiritualism 
in  these  lines  : 

"List  thee,  father:   'twas  last  evening  as  I  lay  upon  my  bed. 
Thinking  of  my  sainted  mother,  whom  they  hid  among  the  dead, 
Till  my  tears  bedewed  the  pillow,  as  though  wet  with  dropping  rain, 
And  I  prayed  aloud  in  anguish  that  she  might  come  back  again — 

'Twas  just  then,  as  I  lay  weeping,  that  the  beautiful  angel  came. 
And  her  voice  was  fraught  with  music  as  she  called  me  by  my  name; 
And  her  robe  seemed  woven  sunbeams,  'twas  so  soft  and  clear  and  bright, 
And  her  fair,  high  brow  was  circled  by  a  diadem  of  light." 

Describing  the  brightness  of  the  shining  angel  mother,  the 
imprinted  kiss  and  her  own  calm,  happy  sensations,  she  thus 
continues : 

"And  she  spoke — I  cannot  tell  thee  all  the  blessed  angel  said 
As  she  bent  above  my  pillow  and  kept  watch  beside  my  bed ; 
But  of  heavenly  things  she  told  me — of  a  light  and  lovely  land. 
Where  there  dwelleth  angel- children  many  a  fair  and  spotless  band 


MODERN   SPIRITUALISM  —  POETIC    TESTIMONY.  251 

And  she  said  such  flowers  bloom  there  as  we  never  see  below, 
Rosier  than  the  hues  of  sunset,  brighter  than  the  rain's  fair  brow  ; 
And  such  gushing  strains  of  music  swell  along  the  fragrant  air, 
As  will  soothe  the  ransomed  spirit  when  released  from  earthly  care." 

Milton's  testimony : 

"Millions  of  spiritual  beings  walk  the  earth  unseen, 
Both  when  we  wake  and  when  we  sleep." 

Tennyson's  testimony : 

In  that  spiritual  biography,  "  In  Memoriam^'^  is  mirrored 
the  various  changes  of  a  poet's  love  and  tenderness  upon  the 
earthly  loss  of  a  friend.  Death  he  considers  an  upward 
flight — the  leaving  of  a  mortal  garment,  a  ruined  chrysalis, 
a  shattered  temple. 

The  poems  of  this  gifted  son  of  song  present  a  type  of 
Spiritualism,  as  beautiful  as  philosophical: 

'* God's  finger  touch'd  him,  and  he  slept ! 

The  great  Intelligences  fair 

That  range  above  our  mortal  state, 

In  circle  round  the  blessed  gate, 
Received  and  gave  him  welcome  there  ; 

And  led  him  through  the  blissful  climes, 

And  show'd  him  in  the  fountain  fresh 

All  knowledge  that  the  sons  of  flesh 
Shall  gather  in  the  cycled  times. 

*        ***** 
And  he  the  much-beloved  again, 
A  lord  of  large  experience,  train 
To  riper  growth  the  mind  and  will: 

And  what  delights  can  equal  those 
That  stir  the  spirit's  inner  deeps, 
When  one  that  loves  but  knows  not,  reaps 

A  truth  from  one  that  loves  and  knows  ? 

If  such  a  dreamy  touch  should  fall. 

Oh,  turn  thee  round,  resolve  the  doubt, 
My  guardian  angel  will  speak  out 

In  that  high  place,  and  tell  thee  all. 


252  DOCTRINES    OF   SPIRITUALISTS. 

If  any  vision  should  reveal 

Thy  likeness,  I  might  count  it  vain 
As  but  the  canker  of  the  brain; 

Yea,  though  it  spake  and  made  appeal 

To  chances  where  our  lots  were  cast 
Together  in  the  days  behind, 
1  might  but  say,  I  hear  a  wind 

Of  memory  murmuring  the  past. 

Yea,  though  it  spake  and  bared  to  view 
A  fact  within  the  coming  year; 
And  though  the  raonths,  revolving  near, 

Should  prove  the  phantom-warning  true, 

They  might  not  seem  thy  prophecies, 
But  spiritual  presentiments ! 
*        ****** 

Descend,  and  touch,  and  enter ;  hear 

The  wish  too  strong  for  words  to  name ; 
That  in  this  blindness  of  the  frame 

My  ghost  may  feel  that  time  is  near. 

Come — not  in  watches  of  the  night, 

But  where  the  sunbeam  broodeth  warm 
Come,  beauteous  in  thine  after  form, 

And  like  a  finer  light  in  light. 

Be  near  us  when  we  climb  or  fall : 

Ye  watch,  like  God,  the  rolling  hours 
With  larger  other  eyes  than  ours, 

To  make  allowance  for  us  all. 

****** 
And  all  at  once  it  soem'd  at  last 
His  living  soul  was  flashed  on  mine. 

And  mine  in  his  was  wound,  and  whirl'd 
About  empyreal  heights  of  thought, 
And  came  on  that  which  is,  and  caught 

The  deep  pulsations  of  the  world." 

WniTTiER's  testimony : 

•'  With  silence  only  as  their  benediction 
God's  angels  come, 
Where,  in  the  shadow  of  a  great  aflliction, 
The  soul  sits  dumb  " 
♦  *  «  ♦  * 


MODERN   SPIRITUALISM  —  POETIC    TESIIMONY. 

"Where  cool  and  long  the  shadows  grow, 

I  walk  to  meet  the  night  that  soon 
Shall  shape  and  shadow  overflow; 

I  cannot  feel  that  thou  art  far, 

Since  near  at  need  the  angels  are ; 

And  when  the  sunset  gates  unbar, 
Shall  I  not  see  thee  waiting  stand, 

And,  white  against  the  evening  star, 
The  welcome  of  thy  beckoning  hand  ?  " 

*  *  *  *  * 

"There  are,  who,  like  the  seers  of  old 
Can  see  the  helpers,  God  has  sent, 
And  how  life's  rugged  mountain  side 
Is  white  with  many  an  angel  tent." 

liOWELL's  testimony  : 

"One  day,  as  Ambrose  was  seeking  the  truva 
In  his  lonely  walk,  he  saw  a  youth 
Resting  himself  in  the  shade  of  a  tree ; 
It  had  never  been  given  him  to  see 
So  shining  a  face,  and  the  good  man  thought 
'Twere  a  pity  he  should  not  believe  as  he  o-^y  . 
****** 

Now  there  bubbled  beside  them  where  they  stcoo;, 

A  fountain  of  waters  sweet  and  good : 

The  youth  to  the  streamlet's  brink  drew  near, 

Saying,  ♦  Ambrose,  thou  maker  of  creeds,  loo£  ^ere  I  ' 

Six  vases  of  crystal  then  he  took 

And  set  them  along  the  edge  of  the  brook." 

Discoursing   of  the   figure   of   the   vases,   and    the  water 
assuming  different  forms,  the  poet  continues — 

**When  Ambrose  looked  up,  he  stood  all  alone — 
The  youth,  and  the  stream,  and  the  vases  were  go:^ 
But  he  knew  by  a  sense  of  humbled  grace. 
He  had  talked  with  an  Angel, /ace  to  face, 
And  felt  his  heart  change  inwardly, 
As  he  fell  on  his  knees  beneath  a  tree." 


Chaptei^^  xxy, 


EXISTENCE  OF  GOD. 


'♦  Tbf  people  were  astonished  at  his  doctrine." — Matthew. 

"My  doctrine  shall  drop  as  the  rain  ; 
My  speech  shall  distil  as  the  dew ; 
As  the  small  rain  upon  the  tender  herb, 
And  as  the  showers  upon  the  grass." — Jehokah. 

"As  other  men  have  creeds,  so  I  have  mine  ; 
I  keep  the  holy  faith  in  God,  in  man, 
^^ul  in  the  angels  ministrant  between." — THlton. 

"T  hold  a  faith  more  dear  to  me 
Than  earth's  rich  mines,  or  fame's  proud  treasure, — 
****** 

A  faith  that  plucks  from  death  its  sting ; 

Communes  with  angels  every  day, 

Sees  God,  the  good  in  everything, 

Where  Truth  Eternal  holds  her  sway." — Powell. 

Reason  pertains  to  God ;  reasonings,  with  their  inductive 
and  deductive  methods,  to  progressive  man.  Moral  freedom 
is  liberfr  "»^  action,  achieved  in  accordance  with  the  divine 
forces  of  our  being  and  the  laws  of  the  Infinite.  The  sphere 
of  freedom  is  the  relative.  It  stands  related  to  the  absolute, 
something  as  the  varying  eddy  to  the  deep,  clear,  rolling 
river,  destined  to  sweep  onward  to  the  ocean. 

Belief  is  an  assent  of  the  mind  to  certain  propositions.  It 
19  based  principally  upon  testimony.  Sufficient  evidences 
com]  cl  it;  a  lack  of  demonstration  precludes  any  rational 

254 


EXEGETICAL    SPIRITUALISM EXISTENCE    OF    GOD.  255 

belief.  The  reasonableness  of  evidence  is  the  soul  of  evi- 
dence, and  the  highest  authority  that  any  individual  can 
possibly  have,  is  the  voiced  command  of  God  in  liis  own 
soul. 

Spiritualists  have  no  authoritative  book-oracles,  nor  pet- 
rified Apostles'  creeds  to  be  interpreted  by  cowled  priests  or 
mitered  pontiflPs.  They  bow  to  no  kingly  master — Chrishna, 
Jesus  nor  John.  They  trust  in  no  external  signs,  ceremo- 
nies or  institutional  law-logic,  scriptural  or  secular,  for 
salvation.  They  rely  upon  no  wafers,  sacramental  altars  red 
with  the  crimsoned  currents  of  slain  goats,  kids  or  Christs, 
to  remove  the  legitimate  consequences  that  result  from 
infringements  of  natural  law.  They  acknowledge  no  eccle- 
siastical authority,  nor  lean  upon  clergymen  or  popes,  Romish 
or  American,  for  their  knowledge  of  those  spiritual  matters 
that  relate  to  immortality  and  eternity. 

In  giving  general  doctrinal  statements,  then,  we  define  not 
for  such  Spiritualists  as  the  King  of  Bavaria  or  Napoleon  of 
France,  or  Garibaldi  of  Italy ;  not  for  the  Howitts  and  Wil- 
kinsons of  England  ;  not  for  Senator  Wade  and  other  hono- 
rable members  of  Congress;  not  for  Robert  Dale  Owen, 
Prof.  Upham  or  Col.  Higginson ;  not  for  numbers  of  the 
most  celebrated  judges,  jurists,  poets  and  writers  of  the  age; 
not  for  Theodore  Tilton's  '^many  honored  members  in  evan- 
gelical churches  who  are  Spiritualists;"  neither  for  Judge 
Edmond's  estimated  '^  eleven  millions  of  believers  "  in  this 
country ;  but  for  ourself  only,  with  an  eye  to  the  usually 
accepted  opinions  of  the  main  body,  and  are  therefore  alone 
responsible  for  these  doctrines  and  definitions. 

Ignorintr  the  fetich  gods  of  Africa — the  repenting,  jealous 
god  of  Judaism — the  changing,  angry-getting  god  of  Cathol- 
icism, the  partial,  malicious  god  of  Calvinism — the  mascu- 
line, miracle-working  god  of  Universalism — we  find  infinitely 
higher  conceptions  of  Deity  in  the  definitions  of  Plato, 
Proclus,  Jesus,  John,  Mahomet,  Parker  and  Davis : 

"  Of  good  there  is  one  eternal,  definite  and  universal  Cause — the 
Infinite  Soul " 


256  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

"  God  is  spirit,  and  spirit  is  causation  underlying  all  things." 

"  God  is  a  spirit,  and  they  that  worship  him  must  worship  him  in 
spirit  and  in  truth. '^ 

"  God  is  love." 

"  There  is  one  God." 

"  To  God — our  Father,  and  our  Mother,  too — ^will  we  ascribe  all 
praise." 

"The  great  positive  mind  of  the  universe — Father  God  and  Mother 
Nature." 

Those  accepting  the  Spiritual  Philosophy  believe  in  the 
Divine  Existence,  the  Infinite  Ssse^  embodying  and  enzoning 
all  principles  of  mind  and  properties  of  matter;  all  wisdom 
and  love;  life  and  motion;  God  manifest  in  everything  from 
sands  to  solar  systems.  This  is  the  spontaneous  concession 
of  the  world's  consciousness.  Egypt's  Osiris,  India's  Brahma, 
Judea's  Jehovah,  the  Grecian's  Jupiter,  the  Mussulman's 
Allah,  the  Platonist's  All-Good,  the  Theist's Deity,  the  Chris- 
tian's Our  Father,  the  N'orthraan's  Odin,  the  Indian's  Great 
Spirit,  express  more  than  glimmerings  of  universal  beliefs 
in  that  God  whose  altars  are  mountains  and  oceans,  and 
whose  pulpits  are  fields,  earths,  orbs  and  circling  systems, 
perfect  in  order,  musical  in  their  marches,  and  flaming  with 
holiest  praises. 

Rejecting  the  human-shaped,  prayer-idolized,  personal  God 
of  evangelical  theologians, — because  personality  logically 
implies  locality,  and  whatever  becomes  localized  in  space  is 
necessarily  limited  and  imperfect — to  us,  God  is  the  Infinite 
Spirit;  Soul  of  all  things;  the  incarnate  Life-Principle  of 
the  universe;  impersonal,  incomprehensible,  undefinable,  and 
yet  immanent  in  dewdrops  that  glitter  and  shells  that  shine 
— in  stars  that  sail  through  silver  seas,  and  angels  that 
delight  to  do  the  immutable  will.  When  we  designate  God 
as  the  Infinite  spirit-presence  and  substance  of  universal 
]^ature,  from  whose  eternally-flowing  life  wondrous  systems 
of  worlds  have  been  evolved,  we  mean  to  imply,  in  the  aflir- 
mation,  all  divine  principles,  attributes,  qualities  and  forces, 
positive  and  negative — Spirit,  as  spirit-substance,  and  matter 
as  physical  substance,  or  a  solidified  form  of  force,  the  former 


EXEGETICAL    SPIRITUALISM  —  EXISTENCE    OF    GOD.  257 

depending  upon  the  latter,  for  its  manifestations.  The 
masculine  aU^ne  cannot  create.  There  was  never  a  higher 
formation  without  the  two  forces^positive  and  negative. 

The  progress  of  matter  is  through  motion,  organization, 
segregation,  accretion,  disintegration,  and  re-combinations 
reaching  continually  towards  higher  structural  formations. 
The  law  is  from  angles  to  circles.  Progress,  so  far  as  legit- 
imately referable  to  Spirit,  relates  to  the  manifestational 
rather  than  the  absolute.  God  as  the  Infinite  Soul  or  the 
Life-Principle  is  not  progressive.  Progress,  as  applicable 
to  the  consciousness  and  ratiocination  of  mortals,  implies,  not 
only  a  low  condition  of  imperfection  to  progress  from,  but 
investigation,  experiment,  defeats  and  victories. 

Matter,  or  physical  substance,  does  not  become  essential 
spirit — does  not,- as  certain  French  philosophers  have  taught, 
"  go  up  into  consciousness."  If  an  aggregation  of  unthink- 
ing monads  may  become  thought — if  one  particle  of  matter 
may  become  spirit — two,  ten  thousand,  all  worlds,  all  matter, 
may  become  pure  spirit!  a  method  comparable  to  feet  " going 
up  "  into  limbs — limbs  into  body — body  into  brain — and 
brain  into  divine  mind !  This  reasoning,  carried  logically 
into  the  actual,  would  finally  ultimate  in  the  transfer  of 
"Mother  I^ature "  into  '^Father  God;"  or  the  consum- 
mation contemplated  by  the  Brahminical  doctrine  of  the 
absorption  of  individualities,  and  all  else,  into  the  "  Oceanic 
vortex  of  absolute  Spirit."  The  position  is  untenable,  and 
destructive  to  conscious  individuality.  Spirit  must  eternally 
depend  upon  matter  for  manifestation  and  the  molding  of 
sensuous  forms.  Spirit  and  matter,  as  substances,  are  not 
utterly  discreted,  as  Swedenborg  taught;  but  blended  and 
correlated  as  the  spiritual  and  physical  body — duality  in 
unity.  Reduced  to  the  last  metaphysical  analysis,  we  have 
this  problem  for  solution  : 

Given  physical  substance,  spirit  substance,  and  the  Divine 
Energy,  to  account  for  the  origin  and  destiny  of  cells,  worlds, 
systems  and  conscious  spirits. 
17 


258  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

The  existence  of  God  is  not  only  the  logic  of  intuit,  oii; 
but  one  of  the  primary  recognitions  of  human  consciousness, 
which  consciousness,  therefore,  is  absolutely  inseparable  from 
the  Infinite  Consciousness. 

Kapoleon,  while  upon  the  ocean,  pointed  starward,  and 
said — "  Talk,  talk  much  as  you  please,  gentlemen;  but  who 
— what  made  and  governs  those  unnumbered  worlds  that 
pasture  in  the  illimitable  fields  of  heaven  ?  " 

Only  apprehending  and  comprehending  that  which  is 
inferior  to  ourselves,  we  cannot  comprehend  God,  nor  can 
we  full}/  fathom  the  measureless  possibilities  connected  with 
the  Divine  within  ourselves ;  much  less  can  we  reach  the 
perfections  of  the  Infinite  through  any  lengthened  series  of 
finite  progressions.  Until  parallel  lines  meet  and  circles  are 
squared,  never  can  any  continuous  number  of  multiplied 
finiteB  amount  to  the  sum  of  an  infinite.  All  human  pro- 
gress is  upon  the  finite  plane.  All  true  unfoldment  is  from 
the  center  outward.  The  ratio  of  the  moral  being  mathe- 
matical, it  is  clear  that  man  may  progress  endlessly  without 
reaching  God.  Progress  is  not  attributable  of  God,  and  no 
methodical  thinker  connects  progression  with  the  infinite 
energizing  Life-Principle  of  the  universe. 

In  conic  sections  there  is  what  is  termed  the  mathematical 
paradox,  where  the  asymptote  continually  approaches  the  curve, 
but  never  meets  it ;  otherwise  expressed,  we  have  the  formula 
of  two  mathematical  lines,  eternally  approaching  and  never 
meeting  ;  so  finite  man  may  forever  progress ;  eternally  nearing 
the  infinite  fountain  of  causation  without  reaching  God.  If 
matter,  as  certain  theorists  have  taught,  becomes  essential  spirit, 
then  progress  is  ultimately  defeated,  for  man  necessarily  loses 
his  individuality  and  consciousness  by  assimilation  with  and 
absorption  into,  the  infinite  ocean  of  Pure  Spirit! 

Demosthenes  is  represented  to  have  said  through  a  modern 
medium  : 

"  Had  you  asked  me  concerning  God,  a  thousand  years  ago,  I  could 
have  told  you  all  about  him ;  but  now,  after  I  have  walked  the  highway 
of  celestial  worlds  for  more  than  two  thousand  years,  I  am  so  far  lost  and 


EXEGETICAL    SPIRITUALISM  —  EXISTENCE    OF   GOD.  259 

overpowered  amid  the  splendors  of  Infinitude,  I  can  say  nothing.  Height 
on  height  beyond  the  penetration  of  finite  vision,  I  see  the  dim  outlines 
of  a  deifie  universe;  I  feel  the  flood-tides  of  Divinity  flowing-  down 
through  all  the  avenues  of  my  immortal  being.  I  hear  peal  after  peal 
of  archangel  eloquence  ringing  through  the  endless  archways  of  the 
empyrean,  evermore  sounding  into  my  ears  the  name  of  God,  God,  God ! 
I  am  silent,  dumb  ! " 

Philo,  asserted  in  the  most  positive  manner  the  masculinity 
and  femininity  of  God  and  the  sexual  order  of  creaton.  He 
repeatedly  represented  Wisdom  as  *'  spouse  of  God  and 
mother  of  all  things;"  and  he  further  says,  "We  may 
rightly  call  God  the  Father  and  Wisdom  the  Mother  of  the 
universe."  Also  according  to  Michelange  Lanci,  the  Egyp- 
tian Hieroglyphs,  interpreted  iu  the  light  of  Egyptian  theos- 
ophy,  taught  that  both  the  male  and  female  principles  inherec^ 
in  Deity,  spirit  and  matter,  as  father  and  mother.  Indian 
Gymnosophiste  also  admitted,  in  the  most  ancient  periods, 
the  duality  of  the  Divine  Existence.  Abraham,  a  dissatisfied* 
ambitious  Brahmin,  inaugurated  the  worship  of  a  unitive 
masculine  god.  Moses  built  upon  the  same  rock;  hence  hi? 
masculine,  blood-thirsty,  retaliatory  laws,  founded  upon 
"  Thus  saith  the  Lord."  And  the  popular  Pauline  Chris- 
tianity of  the  past  eighteen  centuries,  is  Judaism,  only 
sparingly  galvanized. 

The  paternity  and  maternity  of  the  Divine  Nature,  the 
fraternity  of  human  souls,  originating  from  the  same  primal 
fountain,  and  the  progressive  evolutions  of  all  the  races,  are 
truths  that  will  bloom  into  wider  acceptance  as  the  ages 
ripen. 

The  manifestational  order  of  the  past  demonstrates  that 
God — the  Divine  Energy — was.  The  fixedness  of  law  and 
the  uniformity  of  Nature's  processes,  prove  that  God  now  is. 
Yea,  "  of  him,  and  through  him,  and  to  him,  are  all  things, 
to  whom  be  the  glory  forever."  Looking  from  the  mount 
of  vision,  we  behold  Deity  enthroned  everywhere  in  majesty 
and  splendor — a  holy  ^^resence,  which  is  the  innermost  light 
and   life   of    all    lives.     Springing   from    the    paternal    and 


260  DOCTRINES    OF   SPIRITUALISTS. 

maternal  Source,  and  divinely  allied  therewith,  upon  the 
loving  bosom  of  God  we  recline  and  rest,  with  a  trust  so 
beautiful  and  a  confidence  so  deep,  that  nothing  can  disturb 
the  calm. 


Chaptei^  xxyi, 


THE  DIVINE  IMAGE. 


■'•  In  me  God  dwelleth; 


I  in  Him  and  He  in  me ! 

And  my  yearning  soul  he  filleth, 

Here,  and  through  eternity." 

Divine  and  unitive  in  purpose  are  manhood  and  woman- 
hood !  In  the  *'  divine  ima^e  made  he  ihem,''  The  ex- 
pression is  oriental.  Hillel  and  other  scholarly  Hebraists 
may  have  seen  the  substance  under  the  symbol. 

Man,  the  crown-flower  of  Nature's  formative  forces, 
stands  erect  a  polished  shaft  upon  the  summit  of  earth's 
granitic-paved  pyramid.  In  him  are  focalized  the  refined 
and  sublimated  ultimates  pertaining  to  the  whole.  Stars 
may  waltz  and  whirl  through  space;  but  they  cannot  think. 
Planets,  to  the  music  of  immutable  law,  may  polka  across 
tesselated  floors  in  the  temple  of  the  eternal;  but  they  can 
neither  reason  nor  love.  Man  and  woman  alone,  essential 
equals  of  a  perfect  circle,  walk  forth  in  the  divine  image ; 
but  this  image  does  not  consist  in  physical  formation,  for 
God  is  not,  as  we  have  previously  shown,  a  shaped  per- 
sonality outside  the  visible  universe,  rolling  and  guiding 
astral  worlds  mechanically  as  school-boys  roll  their  hoops; 
but  is  Infinite  Spirit,  containing  the  elements  of  all  forms, 
the  principles  of  all  forces,  and  the  attributes  of  all  intelli- 
gence, acting  by  unchanging  methods  for  the  highest  good. 

261 


262  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

The  divine  image  in  which  man  is  made  consists  in  those 
original  constituents  and  principles  that  constitute  him  an 
eternal  individuality.  At  the  inner  basis  he  is  essential  spirit, 
clothed  secondarily  with  a  spiritual  or  soul  bod}^,  and  rimmed 
witli  a  grosser  physical  organism.  Trinal  in  constitution, 
with  crowning  brain-organs  inviting  angel  guests,  man  is  a 
perfect  structure.  The  spiritual  nature — "  Keystone"  to  the 
moral  arch— seals  with  eternity's  seal  both  his  divinity  and 
immortalit3\ 

The  basis  of  man's  immortality  is  deific  substance.  As  a 
conscious  spirit  in  the  innermost,  he  is  incompounded  and 
therefore  indissoluble.  Having  in  spirit  neither  a  beginning 
nor  ending,  he  is  eternally  past  and  eternally  future — ever 
livino;  in  eternal  life.  ITeither  burial  in  the  placenta  walls  of 
maternity,  nor  burial  in  the  human  organism,  nor  burial  from 
sio:ht,  can  effect  the  essential  real. 

The  animal  having  only  a  portion  of  the  primary  elements 
of  life,  having  a  less  number  of  brain-faculties,  and  uncon- 
scious of  its  relations   to  the  original    fountain   of  being,  is 
comparably    an   imperfect   structure.     Logic  cannot    legiti- 
mately affirm  of  a  part  what  it  does  of  a  whole;    neither  will 
philosophical  minds,  conversant  with  the  results  of  analysis 
and  critical  exegesis,  claim — for  entities  and  individualities- 
destinies    to   which  they   never   aspired.     These  statements 
admitted,    animals,  as  such,    are  not  immortal.     There   is, 
however,  no  annihilation ;  no  absolute  loss   in  the  universe. 
When  the  grazing  animal  dies,  earth  crumbles  to  its  native 
earth,  and  the  spiritual  substances,  disintegrated,  pass  into  the 
great  vortex  of  spirit,  to   be  elementarily  re-incarnated  for 
use  in  higher  forms. 

That  human  beings  dwell  in  distant  countries  or  islands^ 
with  no  conceptions  of  God,  or  of  worship  germinal  or 
expressed,  is  notmerely  doubted,  but  denied.  If  such  people 
exist,  not  only  their  location,  but  their  deplorable  position, 
is  susceptible  oi'  proof.  When  those  Spanish  conquerors 
reached  Mexico  and  Peru,  the  historian,  Prescott,  says  they 
found  there  an  *'  abiding  faith  in  God  and    immortality.' 


hXEGETICAL    SPIRITUALISM— THE    DIVINE    IMAGE.  263 

Roman  Catholic  Jesuits,  fired  with  u  missionary  enthusiasm, 
visiting  China,  Thibet,  and  the  distant  islands  of  the  ocean, 
found  everywhere  the  religious  idea  firmly  rooted.  The 
North  American  Indians,  when  first  discovered  by  European 
explorers,  had  their  religious  ideas  of  God,  w^orship  and 
heavenly  hunting-grounds.  Dr.  Livingstone,  the  English 
traveler,  penetrating  into  the  interior  of  Africa,  brought  home 
this  report:  *' There  is  no  necessity  for  beginning  to  tell 
even  the  most  degraded  of  these  people  of  the  existence 
of  God,  or  of  a  future  state,  these  facts  being  universally 
admitted.     *     *     *     * 

On  questioning  intelligent  men  among  the  Bakwains  as 
to  their  former  knowledge  of  good  and  evil,  of  God,  and  of  a 
future  state,  they  have  scouted  the  idea  of  their  ever  havino* 
been  without  a  tolerably  clear  conception  on  all  these  sub- 
jects. They  fully  believe  in  the  soul's  continued  existence 
apart  from  the  body,  and  visit  the  graves  of  relatives  with 
offerings." 

Unfolding  humanity  in  every  country  and  condition — 
worshipful,  aspirational  and  conscious  of  vast  capabilities  for 
progress — has  within  itself  the  prophecy  of  a  future  as  endless 
as  golden. 

Admitting  true  the  old  legend  of  man's  creation,  or  rather 
hurried  improvisation  from  the  "  dust  of  the, ground,"  and 
woman's  from  "  Adam's  rib,"  when  in  deep  sleep,  the 
position  would  afford  no  logical  basis  for  the  affirmation,  that 
man  was  made  in  the  *'  divine  image."  Philosophy,  older 
than  traditions,  goes  beneath  symbols.  Listen  to  its  divine 
voice ! 

All  known  substances  are  composed  of  some  sixty-five 
simples  called  primaries,  because  first  found  in  the  rocks. 
These  rocks,  from  pulverization  and  the  attritions  of  ages, 
result  in  soils.  From  these  soils — spirit  the  motive  force — 
vegetables  are  evolved,  which  still  lift  and  more  thoroughly 
refine  the  primates,  aiding  them  to  become  sufficiently 
attenuated  and  potentialized  to  sustain  animal  organizations. 
Man's  physical  constitution  is  the  grand  reservoir  of  all  the 


264  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

ultimates  of  rocks,  soils,  vegetables,  forests,  fruits  and  ani- 
mals. He  does  not  appropriate  the  primates  as  such. 
There's  no  affinity.  These  basic  elements,  taken  up  bj  the 
lower  order  of  plants,  and  progressing  upward  through  all 
the  ascending  grades,  ultimate  in  man.  As  a  physical 
being,  then,  he  is  related  to  all  orders  of  existence  below  him, 
and,  asa  spiritual  being,  composed  of  on  gmsil  spirit  substances 
and  principles f  he  is  connected  not  only  with  all  the  higher 
intelligences  of  the  heavens,  but  with  the  Infinite  himself,  as 
a  ray  from  a  central  sun,  or  stream  proceeding  from  and  sus- 
tained by  an  Infinite  Fountain.  A  chemist,  analyzing  a  drop 
of  water  from  a  thermal  sulphur  or  sodium  spring,  will  show 
by  critical, "chemical  analysis  that  each  drop  not  only  partakes 
of,  but  contains,  the  identical  elements  and  properties  of  the 
whole  fountain.  Well,  man  is  the  drop,  and  God  the  Eter- 
nal Fountain  !  And  the  divine  chemistry  of  logical  analysis — 
intuition,  reason  and  science — demonstrates  that  every 
essence  attribute  and  principle  of  God  exists  finitely  in  man, 
and  thus  is  he  truly  made  in  the  divine  image  —  a  perfect 
structure  —  a  god  "  manifest  in  the  flesh,"  imaging  the 
eternal  principles  and  properties  of  Father  and  Mother. 


pHAPTEI^^  XXVII, 


MORAL  STATUS  OF  JESUS. 


♦    ♦    *     »     *     £]cce  Homo  t 
"  But  whom  say  ye  that  I  am  ?** 

The  divine  out-pushing  impulse  to  ask,  implies  intelligence 
somewhere  to  answer  every  natural  inquiry.  Denying  the 
existence  of  the  Asian  I^azarene,  is,  simply  assertive  nega- 
tion and  valueless  to  the  thinker,  besides  exhibiting  little 
scholarly  attainment,  and  less  historic  research.  If  poesy 
needed  a  Homer — Sculpture  a  Phidias — -jurisprudence  a 
Lycurgus — morals  a  Confucius — philosophy  a  Plato — and 
oratory  a  Demosthenes — the  Israelitish  nations,  given  to 
religious  contemplation,  required  just  such  an  intuitive, 
loving,  self-sacrificing  character,  as  Jesus  of  Kazareth — the 
central  personage  of  the  gospels.  His  advent,  heralded  by 
angels,  his  mission  was  one  of  mercy,  and  "  Peace  on  earth, 
good  will  to  men." 

It  is  difficult  to  disconnect  countries  from  nations  and 
nations  from  their  inspired  leaders,  who  tower  up,  as  lofty 
columns,  the  glory  of  future  eras.     Goethe    says  : 

"  It  is  with  nations  as  with  families.  When  a  family  has 
lived  a  long  time,  it  finally  produces  an  individual  who  gath- 
ars  up  into  himself  the  attributes  of  all  his  ancestors  ;  rallies 
their  scattered  or  half-developed  qualities,  and  presents  them 
incarnate  in  their  full  perfection.  So  the  felicity  of  Provi- 
dence will  occasionally  sum  up  in  an  individual  the  virtue  of 
a  nation." 

265 


266  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

The  ascended  John  Pierpoint,  reflecting  upon  oriental 
lands  and  their  illumined  seers,  gives  expression  to  his 
admiration  for  Syrian  scenery  in  these  rhythmic  lines — "  The 
airs  of  Palestine." 


-*'  Let  a  lonelier,  lovelier  path  be  mine, 


Greece  and  lier  charms  I'd  leave  for  Palestine. 

These  purer  streams  thro'  happier  valleys  flow, 

And  sweeter  flowers  on  holier  mountains  blow. 

I  should  love  to  breathe  where  Gilead  sheds  her  balm, 

I  should  love  to  walk  on  Jordan's  banks  of  palm, 

I  should  love  to  rest  my  feet  in  Hermon's  dews  ; 

I  should  love  the  promptings  of  Isaiah's  muse  ; 

In  Carmel's  holy  grots  I'd  court  repose, 

And  deck  my  mossy  couch  with  Sharon's  blooming  rose." 

Abraham  went  west  and  founded  Israel ;  Cadmus  went 
*^est  and  founded  the  second  Thebes  ;  ^neas  went  west  and 
founded  Rome ;  leaving  Jerusalem,  Jesus  went  west  to  seek 
and  save  "  his  people  from  their  sins."  It  was  not  Israel, 
Judea,  Carmel,  nor  Sharon,  but  representative  men — the 
men  of  ideas  gracing  those  ancient  countries,  who  live  in  his- 
tory so  fadeless,  and  continue  precious  along  the  memories 
of  many  generations.  Human  nature  in  its  best  estate,  rising 
above  family,  social  relations,  country,  nation,  is  ever  regard- 
ful of  the  great,  and  loyal  to  the  good,  whenever  and  where- 
ever  found. 

Admitting  the  general  tendency  of  the  Asiatic  mind  to  the 
dreamy  exercise  of  a  vivid  imagination,  coupled  at  times 
with  exaggeration,  still  it  is  very  clear  to  those  read  in  the 
philosophy  of  history,  that  the  more  ancient  parables  and 
myths  were  not  the  empty  fictions  of  an  idle  fancy;  but 
rather  the  utterances  of  an  immortal  and  ubiquitous  intui- 
tion, whose  substratum  is  truth. 

To  assume  the  absolute  creation  of  such  a  personage  from 
nonentity  as  Jesus  of  ]N"azareth,  entitles  the  one  thus  affirm- 
ing to  the  charity  of  imbecility.  He  was  the  child  of  the 
heavens,  of  prophecy,  and  of  harmony.  The  wisdom  of  the 
angels  threw  him  into  an  age  of  conservatism  and  stupid 
bigotry.      The     Mosaic     law    had    degenerated    into    cold 


EXRQETICAL  SPIRITUALISM  —  MORAL  STATUS  OF  JESUS.     2b"7 

formalisms ;  brotherly  kindness  into  caste  and  currency,  and 
principle  into  policy.  Judaism,  largely  mingling  with  the  cur- 
rents of  history,  had  become  divided  into  two  branches — 
Palestine  and  that  called  the  '■'•  dispersion,''  Such  secta- 
rists  were  they  in  their  own  Asian  country,  bordering  Africa 
and  Europe,  that,  pressing  around  one  temple  and  one  altar, 
the  Rabbins  cursed  all  Israelites  who  proved  so  recreant  to 
the  law  of  Moses,  as  to  teach  their  children  Greek. 

The  Sadducees  were  a  sort  of  Epicureans ;  materialistic  in 
tendency,  denying  the  immortality  of  the  soul  and  the 
existence  of  angels.  The  Pharisees  were  Separatists^  cling- 
ing to  the  letter  of  the  law,  and  the  traditional  injunctions  of 
Jehovah.  The  Essenians  w^ere  the  Shakers  of  that  period. 
Jesus  was  in  full  sympathy  with  them. 

War,  commerce,  the  Assyrian  captivity  and  nomadic 
tendencies,  had  scattered  many  of  the  Israelites  throughout 
the  world.  These  spoke  the  Greek  tongue.  This  language, 
derived  largely  from  the  Sanscrit,  had  become,  what  Latin 
was  at  a  much  later  period,  the  court  language  and  medium 
of  communication  among  all  the  more  enlightened  nations. 
In  those  prominent  eastern  cities,  especially  Alexandria  and 
Antioch,  flourishing  capitals  of  Egypt  and  Syria,  these  scat- 
tered Jews  formed  numerous  societies,  placing  at  the  head 
some  rich,  influential  families.  Their  Palestinean  brothers 
called  them  Hellenists  They  were  not  considered  soundly 
Orthodox,  even  though  they  had  succeeded  in  getting  the 
Jewish  Bible  translated  into  Greek,  under  the  Ptolemies. 

At  this  initial  point  in  the  religious  cycle  of  that  era,  we 
get  a  correct  clue  to  those  moral  forces  constituting  the 
peculiarities  of  John  —  the  disciple  that  "Jesus  loved." 
Zebedee,  his  father,  a  wealthy  Israelite,  was  a  profound 
thinker  of  the  school  of  Ilillel,  and  exceedingly  liberal  in 
doctrinal  tendencies.  John,  a  natural  genius,  rich  in  the 
gift  of  a  warm,  sensitive  love-nature,  endowed  with  a  flne 
delicate  organization,  highly  mediumstic,  a  thorough- 
trained  scholar  for  that  age  of  the  world,  and  wonderfully 
Shifted  with  a   capacity    for   acquiring  a    knowledge  of  the 


268  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

languages,  was  just  adapted  for  the  constant  companionship 
of  Jesus.  Literally,  John  was  a  Hellenistic  Jew,  thoroughly 
initiated  into  the  civilization,  literature,  and  philosophy  of 
the  Greeks.  This  accounts  for  the  continually  cropping  out 
of  Pythagoric  doctrines  in  his  gospel.  John,  our  patron 
saint,  is,  in  many  respects,  the  ideal  man  of  the  !N"ew  Testa- 
ment. Holy  and  heavenly  was  the  perpetual  friendship  exist- 
ing between  Jesus,  John,  and  his  brother  James.  Superior 
scholarship,  coupled  with  a  sweet-tender  heart-fellowship^ 
entitled  John  to  the  privilege  of  ever  accompanying  Jesus 
as  lingual  interpreter  and  counselor,  which  enabled  him 
more  fully  to  comprehend  the  scope  and  moral  grandeur  of 
Jesus  mediatorial  work;  for,  medium-like, '' he  came  not 
to  do  his  own  will,  but  the  will  of  him  that  sent  him." 

Dying  a  martyred  death,  Jesus  committed  to  the  care  of 
John,  his  sainted  Mother.  Love  and  tenderness  grow  from 
the  same  stem.  Budding  on  earth  they  unfold  and  bloom 
forever  in  the  heavens.  Enwrapt  and  emblazoned  in  the 
glory  of  fraternal  aifection,  Jesus  and  the  disciple  he 
*'  loved,"  now  together,  traverse  the  celestial  heavens,  doing 
the  will  of  the  Eternal,  by  teaching  in  supernal  spheres,  and 
inspiring  Grod's  dear  humanity. 

Though  the  Church-Fathers  may  have  manipulated  the 
primitive  manuscripts — gospels  and  epistles^one  giving  to 
the  JtTazarene  a  certain  attitude;  another  some  peculiar 
expression  of  form  or  forehead ;  and  others  still,  crowning 
him  with  plumes  originally  worn  by  Chrishna,  Confucius, 
Plato,  and  Hillel — our  belief  in  Jesus  remains  unshaken.  We 
believe  in  him,  not  as  the  Infinite  God,  not  as  a  supernatural 
being,  not  as  a  miracle-begotten  specialty  to  patch  up  an 
inefficient  *' plan  of  salvation"  and  ward  off  divine  wrath ; 
but  as  a  man — a  mortal  brother  of  the  immortal  gods  and  god- 
desses, who  temperamentally  helped  fashion  him,  that,  inspired 
by  them  and  a  "  legion  of  angels,"  he  might  aid  in  uplifting 
and  molding  the  future  ages.  He  called  himself  the  "  Son 
of  man."  The  Apostle  termed  him  "  our  elder  brother." 
He   ate,  drank,  slept,   hungered,  thirsted,   and,  weary  frou 


EXEGETICAL  SPIRITUALISM  —  MORAL  STATUS  OF  JESUS.      26i) 

journeyings,  rested  by  Samaria's  well.  He  was  tempted: 
endured  pain;  impetuously  cursed  a  fig-tree;  "learned 
obedience  by  the  things  he  suffered  ;"  was  "  made  perfect  " 
by  draining  bitter  life-cups  of  experience,  and  finally,  with 
soul  aglow  to  the  logic  of  love  and  intuition,  and  prayer- 
words  of  forgiveness  dropping  from  fevered  lips  like  gems 
from  a  crown,  he  died  a  martyr! 

The  German  Zschokke  says :  "  If  Jesus  were  to  come 
to-day  among  Christians,  they  would  nail  him  to  the  cross, 
as  did  the  Jews." 

Appearing,  as  of  old,  in  some  of  our  commercial  cities,  he 
would  not  "  go  on  'Change  at  12  o'clock ;  "  would  not 
visit  an  8  o'clock  prayer-meeting  to  make  an  oration  to  the 
Lord;  would  not  swing  a  censer  in  a  Catholic  Cathedral, 
muttering  Latin  ;  would  not  swell  in  the  Episcopal  robes  of 
Ritualism;  would  not  conjure  up  a  creedal  interpretation,  to 
a  Universalist  confession  of  faith  ;  but,  with  a  toleration  wide 
as  human  wants,  he  would  say  as  of  old — "  By  this  shall 
all  men  know  that  ye  are  my  disciples,  if  ye  have  love  one 
for  another."  Then,  going  about  blessing  children,  seeking 
vagrants,  eating  with  sinners  to  reform  them,  healing  the 
sick  and  teaching  by  the  wayside,  till  weary,  he  would  retire 
for  rest  to  some  Shaker  community,  Essenian-like,  where 
love  was  pure,  free  and  fraternal.  Sincerely  do  we  believe 
in  this  Jesus  of  the  gospels — the  man  that  was — the  Christ- 
spiirit^  that  is, 

No  star  continually  courses  the  same  orbit.  ISTo  man 
bathes  in  the  same  stream  twice.  The  Bryant  of  Thanatopsis 
is  not  the  Bryant  of  to-day.  Longfellow's  *'  Psalm  of 
Life"  reveals  less  strength  and  culture  than  his  "i^ew 
England  Tragedies."  Individualities  do  not  vary;  but  their 
expressions  do.  The  Jesus  who  scourged  the  "  money- 
changers," compared  errorists  to  "  swine" — to  "  thieves  and 
robbers" — and  threatened  his  conservative  fellow-country- 
men with  the  "  damnation  of  hell,"  is  not  the  gentle  Jesus 
who  breathed  the  beatitudes;  who  said  to  the  woman, 
neither  do  I  condemn  thee,  go  and  sin  no  more,"  and  prayed 


270  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

upon  Calvary,  "  Father,  forgive  them."  When  utteriLg 
these  tender  sentiments,  feeling  a  quickening  of  the  divine 
nature,  —  and  literally  "  born  again," — born  into  the  celes- 
tial degree  of  the  Christ-life — coming  into  close  magnetic 
fellowship  and  oneness  with  his  "  My  Father"  or  Spirit 
guide,  truthfully  he  said,  "  I  and  my  Father  are  one" — that 
is,  I  and  my  controlling  spirit  intelligence  are  one  in  desire, 
purpose  and  the  great  worV  of  human  elevation.  Referring 
to  the  Infinite  Presence,  he  exclaimed:  '' God  [Theos,  not 
Pater)  is  a  Spirit,  and  they  that  worship  him,  must  worship 
him  in  spirit  and  in  truth." 

Harmonial,  prayerful,  divinely  overshadowed,  he  grasped 
and  appropriated  the  good,  the  pure,  and  the  true,  found 
in  the  older  systems,  and  lived  them  in  his  daily  life. 
Though  walking  with  man,  he  talked  with  angels.  He  had 
bread  to  eat,  that  the  Jewish  external  world  "  knew  not 
of."  He  went  forth,  especially  towards  the  close  of  his  mis- 
sion, a  practical  impersonation  of  the  principles  he  taught— 
Universal  love — universal  purity — universal  charity. 
These  being  the  three  pillars  in  his  soul-teraple,  his  kingdom 
was  not  of  this  world.  His  heavens  and  hells  were  con- 
ditions higher  or  lower ;  his  salvation  self-growth.  Caring 
little  for  outward  purity,  nothing  for  the  cowardly  *'  what 
will  the  people  say,"  and  desiring  only  to  establish  the 
inner  reign  of  truth,  love  and  selt-denial,  he  left  no  writings, 
no  creed,  no  code,  no  rule  of  life,  no  church  organizations, 
no  plan  for  State  constitutions,  no  clerical  investitures,  no 
baptismal  ceremonies,  nor  fossil  forms  of  worship.  His 
trust  in  God  was  absolutely  sublime.  His  hopefulness  of 
man  was  unbounded.  His  love  for  women  was  angelic ; 
and  purity,  tlie  only  guarantee  for  seeing  God. 

Jesus,  then,  stands  in  relation  to  the  past  the  best  embodi- 
ment of  Spiritualism,  the  richest  Judean  outgrowth  of  the 
spiritual  idea,  and  looking  lovingly  down  from  the  Summer 
Land,  sweetly  says,  "  Come  up  hither."  By  the  exercise 
of  sympathy  and  aspiration,  by  effort  and  consecration  to  the 
truth,  by  daily  holy  living,  he  came  into  the  highest  heavenly 


EXEQETICAL  SPIRITUALISM  —  MORAL  STATUS  OF  JESUS.      271 

relations.  Quickened,  intensified  from  the  celestial  heavens, 
his  original  pre-existent  home,  (for  before  the  mortal  Abra- 
ham was,  he  had  a  "  glory  with  the  Father,")  his  inmost 
yielded  an  elemental  flow  of  pure  spiritual  life.  The  finest 
textured  type,  the  most  harmonial  brain  organism  perhaps 
of  this  planet,  in  that  era,  he  virtually  lived  in  two  worlds — 
the  Christ  of  tenderness  and  love,  experiencing  sweetest 
union  with  God.  A  thorough  intuitionist  by  nature,  he  was 
2i  practical  Spiritualist  in  word  and  deed.  He  worshiped  in 
spirit  and  in  truth.  His  kingdom  was  a  spiritual  kingdom, 
with  the  center  in  humanity's  great  throbbing  heart,  and 
Love  the  king.  His  church  was  a  spiritual  church,  built  up 
in  the  souls  of  men  and  extensive  as  the  races.  His  second 
coming  was  spiritual  —  coming,  as  dispirit^  in  spirit  and 
power.  That  "  second  coming"  in  the  "  clouds  of  heaven," 
with  holy  angels  and  ministering  spirits  freighted  with 
exalted  truths  and  the  enunciation  of  eternal  principles,  is  in 
process  now.  Multitudes  of  the  more  mediumistic  feel  this 
divine  down-flowing  influx  as  the  breath  of  an  eternal  spring. 

Beautiful  is  this  faith,  this  belief,  in  Jesus,  the  ascended 
Sonof  Kazareth.  AH  those  who  thus  believe — that  is,  come 
into  harmonial  relations  with  the  Christ-principle,  living  the 
same  time  spiritual  life  that  he  lived — may  do  similar,  and, 
perhaps,  "  greater  works  than  these."  True,  he  did  not  give 
all  the  "  tests,"  all  the  signs,  nor  do  all  the  works  that 
Jewish  skeptics,  plodding  in  cold  externalisms,  expected. 
He  did  not  transform  "  stones  to  bread,"  by  command ;  did 
not  *'  save  himself  by  coming  down  from  the  cross."  He 
could  not  thus  save  himself;  for  he  could  transcend  no 
established  law  of  IS'ature.  At  certain  times,  owino-  to 
''  conditions,"  unbelief,  lack  of  harmony  or  passivity,  he 
could  do  comparatively  nothing.  Hence  in  Matthew 
(xiii :  58)  we  read,  *'  Jesus  did  not  many  mighty  works 
there,  because  of  their  unbelief."  And  the  Evangelist  Mark 
says  distinctly,  "  And  he  could  there  do  no  mighty  work^     *     * 

*  and  he  marveled  because  of  their  unbelief."  Before 
departing,  however,  for  that  many-mansioned  house  in  the 


272  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

Upper  kingdoms  of  the  Infinite,  he  assured  his  disciples 
in  all  ages — "  These  signs  shall  follow  them  that  believe  : 
In  my  name  shall  they  cast  out  devils  ;  they  shall  lay  hands  on 
the  sick  and  they  shall  recover  ;  and  if  they  eat  any  deadly 
thing  it  shall  not  hurt  them :  Go  ye  therefore  into  all  the 
world  and  preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature  " 

While  sincerely  believing  in  Jesus,  infinitely  deeper  is  out 
trust  in  God,  the  incarnate  life  and  light  of  eternity.  In 
holiest  fellowship  with  Jesus,  angels  and  loved  spirits  in  the 
bosom  of  the  Infinite,  then,  is  our  rest  forever. 


Chapter  xxyiil 


THE  HOLY  SPIRIT. 


"Lie  open,  Soul  I  lo,  angels  wait 
To  enter  thine  abode  I 
Messiahs  linger  at  thy  gate  ) 
Let  in  the  truth  of  God." 

The  Spirit,  the  Paraklete,  the  Comforter,  is  frequently 
referred  to  in  the  gospels.  In  John's  record  we  read :  "  But 
the  Conforter,  which  is  the  Holy  Ghost,  whom  the  Father 
will  aend  in  my  name,  he  shall  teach  you  all  things,  and 
bring  to  your  remembrance  whatever  I  have  said  unto  you." 

Ghost  is  a  most  barbarous  translation  of  the  Greek, 
pneuma — the  Latin,  spiritus,  Pneuma,  naturally  of  the  neuter 
gender,  should  have  been  translated — spirit.  "  He  shall 
baptize  you  with  the  holy  spirit  {en  pneumati  agio)  and  with 
fire;"  that  is,  shall  surround  and  infill  you  with  a  most 
exalting  and  spiritualizing  influence,  the  purifying  efiTects  of 
which  are  comparable  to  fire.  As  scripturally  used,  the 
phrase  sometimes  signifies  influence  or  agency,  and  at  other 
times  individualized,  immortalized  spirits. 

"  The  disciples  *  *  *  were  terrified  and  affrighted,  and  supposed  they 
had  seen  a  spirit." 

"  Well  spake  the  Holy  Spirit  by  Esaiaa  the  prophet  unto  our 
fathers." 

"  Whatsoever  shall  be  given  unto  you  in  that  hour  that  speak  ye ;  for 
it  is  not  YE  that  speak ;  but  the  ffoli/  Spirit" 

18  273 


274  DOCTRINES    OF   SPIRITUALISTS. 

"  Then  said  Jesus  to  them  again,  peace  be  unto  you.  *  *  *  And 
when  he  had  sai  i  this,  he  breathed  on  them,  and  said,  Receive  ye  the 
Holy  Spirit." 

"  After  they  were  come  to  Mysia,  they  assayed  to  go  into  Bithynia  j 
but  the  ^-pirit  parmitted  them  not." 

"  While  Peter  thought  on  the  vision,  the  spirit  said  unto  him.  Behold, 
three  men  seek  thee." 

"  Then  the  spirit  said  unto  Philip,  Go  near  and  join  thyself  to  this 
chariot." 

"  And  when  Paul  laid  his  hands  on  them,  the  Holy  Spirit  came  on 
them  and  they  spake  with  tongues  and  prophesied." 

"  Then  Peter  and  John  *  *  *  laid  their  hands  on  them,  and  they 
received  the  Holy  Spirit." 

These  apostles,  as  well  as  Paul,  being  powerful  developing 
mediums,  so  intensified  the  spiritual  atmosphere,  that,  by 
laying  their  hands  upon  those  susceptible  persons,  thus 
increasing  the  magnetic  battery,  they  were  surcharged  and 
thrilled  with  the  electric  influx.  So  at  the  Pentecostal  scene 
described  in  Acts,  "  when  they  were  all  with  one  accord  in 
one  place,  suddenly  there  came  a  sound  from  heaven,  as  of  a 
rushing  mighty  wind,  and  it  filled  all  the  house  where  they 
were  sitting.  And  there  appeared  cloven  tongues  like  as  of 
f^j,Q^  *  *  *  Aj^(J  ^Ijgy  were  all  filled  with  the  Holy  Spirit, 
and  began  to  speak  with  other  tongues,  as  the  spirit  gave 
them  utterance." 

The  spiritual  manifestations  upon  present  pentecostal  occa- 
sions, when  our  media  are  in  harmony,  corroborate  those  of 
the  past;  and  the  past,  to  historic  inclined  minds,  confirm 
the  present.  Thus  the  old  and  the  new,  as  witnesses  in  a 
common  cause,  clasp  hands. 

One  of  the  demonstrations  of  spiritual  clairvoyance,  estab- 
lishes the  fact  that  each  individual  is  enveloped  in  a  spiritual 
sphere  or  emanation.  This  is  often  seen  by  the  exceedingly 
sensitive,  and  sometimes  absolutely  felt  even  by  those  of 
dull  and  deadened  sensibilities.  The  discovery  of  the  spec- 
trum analysis,  which  now  occupies  so  important  a  position 
in  the  investigation  of  the  physical  sciences,  is  already  help- 
ing Spiritualism,  by  demonstrating  similar  auroral  sphere? 


EXEQBTICAL   SPIRITUALISM  —  THE   HOLY   SPIRIT.  275 

ana  temanations  around  physical  substances.  Spiritualists 
have  taught  this  for  years.  It  was  a  clairvoyant  discovery. 
Science  follows  Spiritualism — a  great  way  off. 

Mr.  Ruskin,  writing  a  friend  in  the  north  of  England, 
says : 

"  You  most  probably  have  heard  of  the  marvelous  power  which  chem- 
ical analysis  has  received  in  recent  discoveries  respecting  the  laws  of 
light.  My  friend  showed  me  the  rainbow  of  the  rose,  send  the  rainbow 
of  the  violet,  and  the  rainbow  of  the  hyacinth,  and  the  rainbow  of  the 
forest  leaves  being  born,  and  the  rainbow  of  forest  leaves  dying.  And, 
last,  he  showed  me  the  rainbow  of  blood.  It  was  but  the  three-hundreth 
part  of  a  grain,  dissolved  in  a  drop  of  water;  and  it  cast  its  measured 
bars,  for  ever  recognisable  now  to  human  sight,  on  the  chord  of  the  seven 
colors.  And  no  drop  of  that  red  rain  can  now  be  shed,  so  small  as  that 
the  stain  of  it  cannot  be  known,  and  the  voice  of  it  heard  out  of  the 
ground." 

If  there  is  a  spheral  emanation  around  the  crystal,  the  plant, 
the  rose,  and  a  drop  of  blood,  how  natural  that  there  should  be 
electro-odylic  spheres  around  physical  and  more  etherealized 
spiritual  bodies.  The  earthly  is  but  the  analogue  of  the 
spiritual. 

Sensitive  persons,  with  organisms  like  iodized  plates,  sym- 
pathetically sense  these  spheres.  Clairvoyants  see,  and  read 
therefrom  the  true  character. 

This  age  has  few  secrets.  Seers  see  the  innermost  of  things, 
and  conscious  souls  know  kindred  souls.  When  rapt  in  this 
holy  soul-blending  sympathy,  law  is  useless,  labor  a  pleasure, 
and  duty  a  word  obsolete.  Such  souls  converse  across  oceans 
when  no  sounds  pass.  Oblivious  to  the  outward,  to  time 
and  space,  they  live  the  inner  life.  Those  positive  impart  to 
the  negative — impart  what  they  have,  the  quality  of  the  efflux 
corresi)onding  to  the  interior  state.  If  good  and  pure-minded, 
they  impart  the  "  Holy  Spirit;  "  that  is,  a  most  uplifting  and 
spiritualizing  influence.  This  rationally  explains  why  Jesus 
"took  little  children  in  his  arms  and  blessed  them.''  The 
blessing  did  not  consist  in  the  uttered  words,  but  in  the 
eelestializing  influence  of  the  divine  magnetism  he  imparted. 


276  DOCTRINES    OF   SPIRITUA  jISTS. 

It  explains  also  why  he  "  breathed  upon  his  disciples,"  and 
how  it  was  that  he  "  felt  virtue  go  out  of  him "  when  the 
negative  woman  touched  the  hem  of  his  garment. 

To  feel  the  breath  of  the  pure — to  come  into  soul-fellowship 
with  the  true  and  noble,  is  equivalent  to  a  baptism  of  the 
'*  Holy  Spirit;  '*  a  crown  of  joy  and  a  moral  transfiguration. 


ChAPTEI^^   XXIX. 


BAPTISM. 


"  Teach  me  Thy  Truth  to  know, 
That  this  new  light  which  now  I  see 

May  both  the  work  and  workman  show ;  • 

Then  by  baptismal  love,  I'll  climb  to  Thee." 

Ii  tropical  countries  of  the  East,  ablutions  were  common. 
Since  water  was  efficacious  in  removing  effete  substances 
from  the  body,  it  became,  in  time,  an  accepted  emblem  of 
moral  purification.  Immersion  was  doubtless  the  outward 
method.  The  Christian  church  has  contended  that  Jesus 
dictated  a  fixed  formula  of  baptism,  when  he  charged  the 
apostles  to  "  Teach  all  nations,  baptising  them  in  the  name 
of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost;"  but 
the  apostles  themselves  thought  differently,  and  baptized 
simply  in  the  name  of  Jesus.  Spiritually  interpreted  and 
applied,  the  Father  may  signify  the  absolute  religion  ;  the 
Son,  the  religion  of  humanity;  and  the  Holy  Spirit  the 
religion  of  the  conscience  and  affectional  nature,  kindled 
into  holy  aspiration  by  the  magnetisms  of  angels. 

The  Greek  word  baptisma,  rendered  baptism  from  the  verb 
bapiizo,  implies  rite  or  ceremony.  Relative  to  this  matter  of 
baptism  we  accept  the  following  Pauline  teaching : 

"  One  Lord,  one  faith,  one  baptism. 

"  One  God  and  Father  of  all,  who  is  above  all,  and  through  all,  and 
m  you  all." — Eph.  iv  :  5-6. 

277 


278  DOCTRINES    OF   SPIRITUALISTS. 

This  one  genuine  baptism,  however,  is  not,  never  was,  water 
baptism.  All  outward  baptisms  are  Mosaic.  After  every  ad 
of  defilement,  the  Israelites  were  commanded  to  bathe  and 
wash  themselves  clean  with  water. 

John  the  Baptist,  seemingly  disorderly  and  fanatical,  a 
partially  developed  medium,  controlled  by  Elias  to  cry  in 
Judean  forests,  never  embraced  Christianity  as  taught  by  the 
Nazarene;  neither  did  he  spiritually  enter  in  fulness  the 
Messiah's  "Kingdom  of  Heaven."  Hence,  said  Jesus,  "He 
that  is  least  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  greater  than  Ae." 
John  came  under  the  law  dispensation.  Immersion  in  some 
flowing  stream  was  his  manner  of  initiating  converts.  Many 
of  his  more  aspirational  disciples  soon  left  him,  however,  and 
followed  the  man  of  ITazareth.  John,  by  the  aid  of  his 
mediumship,  caught  a  glimpse  of  this  superior  teacher 
and  testifier :  "  I  indeed  baptized  you  with  water  unto 
repentance ;  but  he  that  cometh  after  me,  whose  shoes  I  am 
not  worthy  to  bear,  shall  baptize  you  with  the  Holy  Ghost 
and  with  fire."  "But  Jesus  himself  baptized  not'''  with 
water. 

His  disciples  in  a  few  instances  baptized  by  immersion ;  so, 
not  having  attained  unto  the  higher  and  more  spiritual,  they 
also,  in  the  earlier  years  of  their  mediumship,  occasionally 
circumcised  and  practiced  other  Jewish  ceremonies.  ITone 
of  them,  save  John  the  Evangelist,  understood  Jesus,  or  the 
import  of  his  spiritual  kingdom.  They  received  the  ^aza- 
renean  baptism  of  fire,  of  love,  of  consecration  and  holy 
spirit  influx,  only  in  part,  and  hence  their  doubts,  fears  and 
tergiversations.  Honoring  John  the  Baptist  for  his  zeal, 
admiring  his  immersion  rites  because  of  their  cleanly  and 
invigorating  eflects  in  that  dusty  tropical  country,  and 
believing  also  in  the  necessity  of  present  physical  ablutions, 
we  recommend  daily  baptisms  in  summer-time,  and  their 
frequency  in  winter. 

There  is,  however,  an  efiicacy  of  water  baptism,  under 
spiritual  control,  not  yet  understood  or  appreciated  by  the 
church — a  baptism  which  the  spirits  were   able  to  induce 


BXRGETICAL    SPIRITUALISM  —  BAPTISM.  279 

through  John,  in  one  of  his  exalted  mediumistic  states^ 
whilst  baptising  Jesus  in  Jordan.  It  is  well  known  that 
water  can  be  magnetically  spiritualized  by  repeatedly  touch- 
ing and  agitating  it;  and  that  water  being  a  conductor  of 
electric  action,  can  thus  be  made  a  powerful  agency  in  curing 
diseases  and  spiritualizing  body  and  mind.  It  is  said  that  an 
angel,  at  certain  times,  stirred  the  pool  of  Bethesda,  and 
whosoever  then  stepped  into  it,  was  healed  of  aiy  disease. 
No  doubt  the  angel  magnetized  it — charged  it  with  spiritual 
vitality.  A  baptism  therein  was  efficacious  to  the  well  and 
the  sick.  The  water  that  closed  over  Jesus  in  baptism,  was 
spiritualized  by  spirits  through  the  mediumship  of  John,  and 
therefore  was  more  than  a  sign  of  purity.  Spirits  have  been 
known  of  late  to  sprinkle  a  whole  circle  of  inquirers  with 
spiritualized  water,  the  influence  of  which  was  most  benefi- 
cent to  harmonize  the  mediumistic  conditions.  We  do  not 
dissent  from  such  uses  of  water,  but  recommend  them.  We, 
however,  would  have  no  special  formality.  Let  all  elements 
be  spiritualized,  even  the  food  we  eat,  as  an  every-day 
eucharist.  When  we  are  intromitted  into  the  real  spiritual 
life,  and  all  our  being  is  thus  harmonized  to  the  music-ripples 
of  "  the  water  of  life  " — the  divine  inflowings — not  only  are 
we  in  person,  but  all  things  around  us,  are  truly  baptized  and 
consecrated  to  holiness.  There  is,  then,  but  one  true  Christ- 
baptism — the  baptism  of  the  "  Holy  Spirit," — the  descending, 
divine  afflatus,  lifting  the  soul  into  that  sweetc ,  calmer 
fellowship  of  the  more  heavenly  intelligences.  In  this 
divine  baptism,  whether  from  good  men  or  w  »ir.en,  or 
angels,  we  believe,  and  unto  it  continually  seek. 


ChAPTEI^     XXX. 


INSPIRATION. 


•  There  is  a  spirit  in  man,  and  the  inspiration  of  the  Almighty  giveth  it 
understanding." 

*♦♦»*««  Inspiration  clothes  creation  in  a  robe  of  day." 

Inspiration — God's  outflowing  breath — is  man's  inbreathed 
life — a  constant  power.  The  universe  is  a  many-toned  harp 
with  strings  swept  by  the  forces  of  the  Infinite.  Aspirations 
are  the  vibrations.  All  souls  feel  them.  Uplifted,  they 
measure  the  divine  light  poured  into  receptive  spirits. 

Spiritual  illuminations, — exalted  ^and  original  thoughts — 
evidently  emanate  from  an  over-arching  world  of  subtile 
principles  and  invisible  powers.  The  heavens  vivify  the 
earth. 

"Every  soul  is  aflame  with  God." 

From  the  Latin,  inspiro,  comes  the  word  inspiration;  imply- 
ing inbreathings,  impregnating  and  opening  the  avenues 
of  perception,  the  infusion  of  feeling,  influence,  ideas  from 
the  All-perfect  and  the  angelic — from  the  immortalized,  and 
from  mortals — from  forests,  fields,  flowers,  and  the  beautiful 
in  nature  everywhere.  As  God  is  infinite,  filling  im- 
mensity, inspiration  is  necessarily  universal  and  perpetual  as 
the  river  of  life.  N'ot  creating  within  us  new  faculties,  it 
arous('3  and  kindles  into  keener  activities  all  the  hidden 
forces  of  our  conscious  beings.     Pertaining  more    to  souls 

280 


EXEGETICAL    SPIRITUALISM  —  INSPIRATION.  281 

than  books  or  traditionary  legends,  it  overs  weeps  the  epochs 
of  all  the  dust-buried  ages,  and  is  even  more  perfect  now 
than  in  those  earlier  mornings  of  time. 

As  water,  crystal  or  clouded,  assumes  the  shape  of  its 
vases,  so  inspiration  is  graded  in  quantity  and  quality.  Who 
has  not,  in  the  higher  moments  of  thought  or  aspiration,  felt 
a  sweet,  hallowed  inbreathing  from  the  great  pulsing  soul  of 
nature  ?  Who  has  stood  upon  some  emerald-carpeted  moun- 
tains in  the  hush  of  evening,  and  not  felt  the  soul  expand  as 
it  caught  glimpses  of  immortal  truths  ?  Who,  walking 
among  the  lilies  of  the  field,  has  not  been  startled  and 
thrilled  with  the  consciousness  of  those  eternal  principles 
that  stream  in  liquid  pearls  through  universal  being  ? 

Rising  liking  shafts  of  flame  from  the  abysmal  past,  we 
see  in  Hesiod  a  poet,  Jeremiah  a  weeper,  Pythagoras  a 
thinker,  Socrates  a  philosopher,  Pericles  a  constructor, 
Appeles  an  artist,  Jesus  a  Spiritualist,  John  a  mystic, 
Perasee  a  scientist,  Mozart  a  musician.  Bacon  a  logician, 
Ballon  a  theologian.  These,  with  others,  yielding  to  what 
Emerson  facetiously  terms  "  the  broodings  of  the  oversoul," 
enriching  their  receptive  minds  by  the  study  of  the  spiritual 
laws  that  map  the  universe,  and  mentally  appropriating  the 
living  sermons  preached  daily  in  the  great  Temple  of  i^ature, 
with  birds  for  singers  and  oceans  for  organs  —  these,  we 
repeat,  speaking  words  that  burned,  or  breathing  music  that 
charmed — touched  the  world's  heart  and  left  their  psycho- 
logical imprint  thereon — touched  it,  because  divinely  inspired. 

!N"ot  the  sacred  books  of  India  or  China — not  the  manj^- 
versioned  Bibles  in  use  by  Jews  or  Christians,  are  inspired ; 
but  rather  the  truths  they  mirror. 

All  truth,  in  Bibles  or  out  of  them — all  truth,  scientific 
philosophic  or  religious — is  inspired.  Truth  is  a  unity.  It  is 
only  in  the  seeming  that  truths  clash.  Octave  notes  do  not 
jar.  The  unripe  peaches  of  July  do  not  contradict  the 
blushing  and  mellowed  ones  of  October.  They  only  manifest 
the  different  stages  consequent  upon  the  law  of  growth. 
Our  media,  like  the  seers  of  Egypt,  Greece  and  Rome, — like 


282  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

the  propbets  of  Hebrew  history, — like  the  apostles  and 
martyrs  of  the  better  dispensations,  are — in  their  hour^  of 
abstraction  or  loftiest  contemplation,  beautifully  inspired. 
As  one  among  these,  "doomed  to-day,"  we  take  a  manly 
pride  in  acknowledging  our  helps  from  the  world  of 
spirits. 

There  is  a  general  and  a  special  inspiration — both  natural. 
Our  spirit  guides  inspire  us,  eithei'  by  willing  a  magnetic 
current  to  touch,  as  with  regenerating  fire,  our  brain  facul- 
ties ;  or — the  conditions  previously  prepared — by  approach- 
ing and  breathing  the  inmost  feelings  of  their  own  heaven- 
illumined  souls  into  ours.  God,  being  infinite  and  impartial, 
all  humanities,  constituting  a  fraternal  unity  in  diversity  of 
individualities,  are  inspired  from  higher  or  lower  planes  of 
conscious  existence.  The  truer  the  aim,  the  diviner  the 
purpose,  sweeter  the  nature  and  holier  the  aspiration,  the 
more  exalting  and  ecstatic  is  the  inspiration.  Plato,  mantled 
in  Grecian  grandeur,  gathered  his  highest  inspirations 
while  summering  upon  the  cloud-piercing  Hymettus; 
Mahomet,  from  Arabian  summits ;  Confucius,  from  Asian 
mountains,  and  Jesus,  tearful  and  prayerful,  from  Kedron's 
valley,  and  Olive's  mountain. 

Inspiration  comes  obedient  to  the  law  of  attraction ;  it  is 
as  natural  to  the  mental  affections  as  air  to  the  lungs.  It  is 
ever  ratioed  to  the  plane  of  our  moral  status  of  character. 
Only  the  active,  thinking,  loving,  aspiring  mind  is  truly 
inspired.  We  get  here  what  we  seek.  There  are  spiritua' 
strata  of  inspiration  as  there  are  natural  strata  in  our  ma- 
terial atmospheres  for  each  grade  of  sentient  being.  We 
may,  therefore,  be  inspired  in  the  department  of  passion,  of 
reflection,  of  invention,  of  music,  of  poetry,  of  patriotism,  of 
philanthropy,  of  the  loves  of  childhood,  of  moral  justice,  of 
divine  recognition,  just  as  we  adjust  and  habituate  these 
functional  organs  and  faculties.  The  lower  the  plane  the 
grosser  is  the  qualitative  inspiration  ;  the  higher  the  plane  the 
purer  is  the  inspiration.  Our  status  of  love-life  determines 
the  degree  of  our  heaven  or  spiritual  sphere  of  use.     If  we 


EXEGETICAL    SPIRITUALISM  —  INSPIRATION.  283 

would  be  ushered  into  holy  light,  the  holiest  pu  pose  must 
animate  the  will  to  corresponding  activities.  Thus,  and  thus 
only,  do  we  drink  of  the  immortal  fountains  of  undimmed 
and  celestial  goodness.  Under  such  an  inspiration,  we  are 
able  to  discover  defects  in  our  forces  of  character,  creating  a 
keen,  sharp  pain  in  a  tender  conscience  that  rouses  up  to 
focalize  those  dormant  faculties  to  higher  points  of  mind  and 
heart,  that  then  loom  up  in  visions  as  an  attainable  glory. 
The  holiest  spirits  have  the  deepest  pain  when  any  taint  is 
found  upon  their  inner  life.  When  admitted  to  inspirations 
and  consociations  of  such  spirits,  our  unstrung  or  untouched 
chords  of  love  are  attuned  to  heavenly  order,  when  our 
whole  being  is  at  length  spiritually  musicalized,  heard  and 
felt  in  raptured  gratitude  to  the  "  white-vestured"  come  to 
lead  us  into  their  Edens  of  Innocence  and  Beauty. 

Believing  in  inspiration,  then,  we  would  go  up  day  by  day 
on  to  the  Mount  of  Transfiguration  ;  would  open  the  win- 
dows of  our  souls  to  the  constant  reception  of  higher 
truths ;  would  be  charitable  to  all  fresh  thoughts,  from 
whatever  source,  to  all  newly  conceived  ideas,  for  they  may 
have  traveled  as  blessings  down  from  sunnier  zones. 
Behind  even  the  faintest  corruscation  of  some  wierd,  half- 
expressed  truth,  there  may  gleam  a  star  silver-shrouded,  or 
a  celestial  sun  awaiting  earthly  recognition. 

God  is  in  the  present.  The  books  of  inspiration  are  not 
closed  and  sealed.  Ideas,  principles,  the  laws  of  pure  intel- 
ligence, require  no  crutches.  Americans  can  stand  erect 
without  spinal  stiiFenings  from  Asian  monuments.  Prayer 
need  not  float  to  heaven  on  the  breath  of  ancient  memories; 
nor  assume  oriental  attitudes  to  secure  a  hearing. 

"Where'er  there's  a  life  to  be  kindled  by  love, 

"Wherever  a  soul  to  inspire, 
Strike  this  key-note  of  Qod  that  trembles  aboTe, 
Night's  silver-tongued  voices  of  fire." 

Our  granite-hills  and  highlands,  are  sacred  as  Israel's 
mountains;  our  rivers  holy  as  the  Jordans  of  Asia,  and  our 


284  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

forests  beautiful  as  the  olives  and  cedars  that  shaded 
Lebanon.  God  did  not  speak  his  first  word  to  Moses  in  the 
Old  Testament ;  nor  pronounce  his  last  to  John  on 
Patmos.  The  aspirations  of  true  men  cannot  be  held  in 
slavish  subjection  to  the  letter  of  past  revelations.  Souls 
must  have  living  bread.  They  must  bathe  in  living  streams, 
branching  from  the  "  River  of  Life."  They  must  be  free  as 
God's  winds — free  as  the  loves  of  the  angels. 

Inspirations  can  never  know  a  finality,  being  manifest  in 
all  forms  of  life  ;  in  the  progressive  movements  of  the  ages ; 
in  religion,  art  and  science;  in  the  moral  heroism  of 
reformers ;  in  the  tender  afifections  of  woman ;  in  the 
ministry  of  spirits  ;  in  the  sincere  devotions  of  the  prayerful, 
and  in  the  sweet  trust  of  a  pure  and  holy  life. 


pHAPTEi^    XXXI. 


BEAUTY  OF  FAITH. 


*<The  soul's  vague  longing — 
The  aching  void  which  nothing  earthly  fills — 
Oh,  what  desires  upon  my  heart  are  thronging, 
As  I  look  upward  to  the  heavenly  hills  !  " 

The  acceptance  of  the  sciences  is  based  more  upon  the 
investigations  of  others  than  personal  research.  Christen- 
dom, rejecting  the  inspirations  and  spiritual  manifestations 
of  the  present,  rests  its  bony  head  upon  the  old  grayed 
monuments  of  antiquity,  and  strives  to  fill  its  leanness  upon 
histories  and  doubtful  facts  connected  with  ancient  Jewish 
feasts.  It  piously  prefers  dipping  from  the  "Dead  Sea,"  than 
drinking  from  America's  gushing  fountains.  This  is  an 
abuse  of  faith.  Spiritualists  understand  the  import  of  these 
teachings — "  Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread  " — "  a  well  of 
water  within  you  springing  up  into  everlasting  life" — "Lo! 
I  am  with  you  alway,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world !  " 

Faith  is  perpetual.  When  its  "  substance  of  things  hoped 
for  "  is  swallowed  up  in  fruition,  like  the  bud  blossoming 
into  the  flower,  it  unfolds  a  yet  higher  life — ever  higher — 
preluding  immortal  progress. 

Faith  often  used  in  a  subjective  sense  for  personal  belief, 
is  elemental  in  the  human  soul,  and  may  be  defined  an 
assent  of  the  mind  to  propositions  based  upon  the  testimony 
of  others,  or  an  acceptance  of  such  truths  as  seem  legiti- 
mately deducible  from  the   investigations   of  physical  and 

285 


286  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

moral  science.  Faith,  differing  essentially  from  mere  belief, 
is  graded  upward  from  the  more  external  to  the  divine, 
corresponding  relationally  to  the  outer  and  inner  conscious- 
ness. The  latter  is  closely  allied  to  intuition.  It  is  a  glim- 
mering from  the  star  of  destiny.  Faith  is  essential  to  suc- 
cessful communication  with  ministering  spirits.  The  adjust- 
ment of  the  spirit  batteries,  under  this  law,  is  most  delicate 
and  beautiful.  The  spirit  has  to  employ  our  magnetic  sphere 
— enters  into  rapport  with  us  sympathetically — and  if  we  are 
any  ways  deceptive  and  tricky,  gloomy  and  unbelieving,  our 
very  mental  and  moral  condition  defeats  the  object;  for  then 
a  pure  and  truthful  spirit,  who  would  communicate,  finds  it 
very  difficult  to  reach  our  sphere,  it  being  so  magnetically 
repellant.  Honest  doubt  does  not  imply  i^n-faith;  in  fact,  it 
is  faith  in  embryo.  The  candid  inquirer  always  gets  light; 
for  such  a  sphere  attracts  the  angel  who  comes  to  bless  "  the 
poor  in  spirit."  Faith,  then,  is  rooted  in  innocency.  "  Thy 
faith  hath  made  thee  whole.'*  How  beautiful  it  is  under  the 
effulgence  of  this  spiritual  light!  When  our  purpose  is 
sincere,  Faith-angels  come,  administering  "good  tidings  of 
good  "  to  those  who  "  seek  immortality — eternal  life  !  " 

Louis  !N^apoleon  landed  upon  the  French  coast  with  a  few 
adherents,  shouting — "Long  liveN^apoleon."  The  thoughtless 
called  him  a  madman ;  but  to-day  he  guides  the  destinies  of 
an  empire.  Garibaldi  put  his  foot  down  firmly  in  Sicily, 
raised  the  cry  of  revolution,  drove  out  a  ruling  tyrant,  and 
offered  a  kingdom  to  Victor  Emanuel — a  kingdom  that  shall 
yet  call  Kome  its  capital,  and  send  sunshine  into  every  Italian 
heart.  Joan  D'Arc,  fired  with  enthusiasm  and  inspired  by 
avenging  angels,  led  the  French  army  against  the  English  to 
victory — a  sample  of  faith  and  will-force.  Columbus,  dreamy 
and  visionary,  conceived  of  continents  and  islands  in  the  West. 
We  see  him  drafting  his  course;  now  aweary  pilgrim  at  the 
king's  gate,  and  now  at  royal  courts  pleading  for  ships.  At 
length,  the  wish  attained,  the  sails  are  hoisted  and  the  prows 
turne«l;  he  puts  out  into  the  great  deep,  under  the  loftiest 
inspiration  of  faith.     The  needle  trembling,  turned  from  its 


EXEGETICAL    SPIRITUALISM — BEAUTY    OP   FAITH.  287 

accustomed  position;  strange  sea-birds  whirled  by;  storms 
danced  their  demon-dances  in  the  rigging;  but  a  divine 
current,  seemingly,  swept  them  on,  till  a  new  world  glad- 
dened their  vision.  Such  a  faith  is  the  fountain-head,  the 
mighty,  propelling  force  we  see  manifest  in  the  field,  the 
shop,  the  academy,  the  commercial  mart,  the  studio  of  the 
artist,  the  observatory  of  the  astronomer,  and  the  literary 
altitudes  attained  in  American  and  English  universities. 

Beautiful,  truly,  is  a  calm,  abiding  faith — faith  in  the 
measureless  possibilities  of  humanity — faith  in  the  governing 
guidance  of  the  spiritual  heavens — faith  in  the  uuchange- 
ability  of  the  divine  laws,  and  faith  in  the  ceaseless,  outflow- 
ing love  of  the  Infinite.  This  kind  of  faith  has  more  to  do 
with  the  moral  nature  than  the  intellect.  Science,  if  touch- 
ing the  intellect  only,  is  cold  and  chilling,  though  clear  as 
crystal.  And  philosophy  alone,  without  the  warming  reli- 
gious influences  of  love  and  sympathy,  faith  and  trust,  is 
comparable  to  a  glistening  iceberg,  hugging  the  human  soul 
into  a  resurrectionless  death. 

How  sweet  and  perfect  the  little  child's  faith  in  the  parent; 
and  how  firm  should  be  ours  in  the  innate  goodness  of  every 
human  being!  Under  the  ice  the  water  runs;  above  the 
clouds  the  sun  shines ;  upon  the  moldering  piles  of  India  and 
the  marbled  ruins  of  Greece,  mosses  are  green;  and  wild 
vines,  clinging,  climb  sunward.  So,  nestling  under  the 
roughest  exterior,  and  growing  out  from  every  conscious 
soul,  there  is  something  fair  and  heavenly.  Aye,  an  angel  is 
hidden  there,  awaiting  the  better,  higher  conditions  to  pro- 
duce the  Eden-blooms  of  good  works.  In  every  fainting, 
struggling  Magdalen  are  all  the  divine  elements  of  a  Virgin 
Mary;  and  in  every  denying,  weeping  Peter  are  all  the  soul- 
prophecies  of  angelic  life — a  structural  pillar  in  the  present 
to  be  hewn,  polished  and  fitted  into  the  living  church  of 
humanity. 

Cherishing  this  deep  faith  in  the  divinity  of  humanity,  in 
the  good,  the  beautiful  and  the  true.  Spiritualists  should 


288  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

cultivate  the  tenderest  charities,  encourage  the  widest  syra 
pathies,    and,    despising   none,  despairing   of  none,  should 
strive  everj^where  to  bring  out  and  build  up  the  pure  and 
the  holy. 

**  Where'er  we  go  in  weal  or  woe,  whatever  fate  befall, 
In  sunny  glade  or  forest  shade,  a  Heaven  is  over  alU^ 

Thinkers,  ignoring  the  forms  of  faith  and  theologic  dogmas 
of  churchmen,  consider  the  creeds  fashioned  in  the  last  cen- 
tury hardly  fitted  for  spittoons  in  the  present.  Asserting  a 
true  manhood,  they  stamp  them  under  their  feet,  and  clasp- 
ing the  hands  of  the  immortalized,  walk  up  daily  on  to  some 
mount  of  ascension,  to  commune  with  nature  and  talk  with 
the  gods.  But  faith  in  man  and  woman,  in  law  and  God, 
and  faith  in  an  endless  progressive  existence,  involving  its 
demonstration  ever  approximating  the  divine  perfections, 
are  necessities  of  the  soul  and  beai^^lful  as  holy. 

"Thither  our  weak  and  weary  steps  are  tending; — 
Loved  angel  friends  I  with  each  frail  child  abide! 
Guide  us  towards  Home,  where,  all  our  wanderings  ending, 
We  shall  see  y«,  and,  *  shall  be  satisfied  I '  " 


ChAPTEF^    XXXII, 


REPENTANCE. 


** Repent  ye;  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  at  hand." 

"Oh,  for  those  humble,  contrite  tears, 
Which  from  repentance  flow." 

*•  How  oft  in  still  communion  known, 
Those  spirits  have  been  sent 
To  share  the  travail  of  the  soul, 
And  show  it  what  they  meant." 

Repentance  implies  genuine  reformation.  The  Greek 
word  is  3fe(anoia,  and  literally  denotes  the  soul's  recollec- 
tions of  its  own  actions,  in  such  a  way,  as  to  produce  both 
sorrow  and  the  purpose  of  amendment.  The  word  occurs 
about  sixty  times  in  the  ITew  Testament. 

John,  the  precursor  of  the  INTazarenean  Spiritualist,  preach- 
ing in  the  mountains  and  wildernesses  of  Syria,  under  the 
psychologic  control  and  inspiration  of  Esaias — Isaiah — cried, 
"  Repent  ye ;  "  that  is,  reform,  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven — 
a  more  spiritual  dispensation — is  ripening  for  acceptance, 
destined  to  kindle  into  a  richer,  rapturous  glow  our  national 
life.     ■ 

Repentance  in  no  way  indicates  security  from  punishment ; 
nor  is  it  logically  allied  to  any  system  that  promises  escape 
from  the  legitimate  consequences  attending  the  violations  of 
natural  law.  T^ature,  though  rigid,  is  a  righteous  master. 
Poised,  she  holds  the  golden  scales  of  justice — obey  and 
enjoy — transgress  and  suffer. 

19  289 


290  DOCTRINES    OP   SPIRITUALISTS. 

Vicarious  atonements,  cradled  in  ignorance,  belong  origi- 
nally to  the  lower  social  strata  of  Egyptian  life,  Jewish  cere- 
monies and  Christian  superstitions — all  mere  devices  to  evade 
just  penalties.  Pythagoras,  Plato,  Jesus,  and  other  intuitive 
thinkers  of  the  eldest  ages,  avoided  introducing  atoning  sub- 
stitutions into  their  religious  instructions.  ITot  from  Jesus, 
but  from  the  policy-inspired  Pauline  writings  of  the  New 
Testament,  do  churchmen  gather  their  dogmas  of  atonement 
and  imputed  righteousness. 

The  soul  keenly  alive  to  justice — a  justice  that  would 
punish  the  giiilly  only — repudiates  such  popular  church 
doctrines  as  these,  expressed  in  verse : 

"Just  as  I  ara,  without  one  plea, 

But  that  thy  blood  was  shed  for  me. 
****♦« 

Just  as  I  am  and  waiting  not 

To  rid  my  soul  of  one  dark  blot, 

To  thee,  whose  blood  can  cleanse  eaoh  spot, 

0  Lamb  of  God,  I  come,  I  come  ! " 

No  crimson  sacrifices  of  slain  goats  and  kids,  no  sacred 
waters  of  Gunga,  in  India,  no  Grecian  draughts  of  hemlock, 
nor  streaming  blood  from  Calvaries,  can  avail  anything, 
even  judicially,  in  saving  from  the  consequences  of  those 
just  penalties,  threading  Nature's  laws,  as  cause  and  effect. 

The  inebriate's  repentance  does  not  save  him  from  the 
past  shame,  debility,  degradation  and  torment,  resulting  from 
years  of  physical  transgression.  The  poisoned  libations 
daily  consumed,  impregnating  every  bone,  muscle,  sinew, 
nerve,  deadening  the  finer  emotions  and  benumbing  the 
mind,  leave  their  stings  and  scars  upon  the  vital  organism ; 
while  memory — the  *'  undying  worm  " — lives  to  torture  the 
mental  with  humiliation  and  remorse.  These  cannot  be 
forgiven  in  the  sense  of  blotting  them  into  a  forgetless 
oblivion.  The  universe  knows  no  loss.  But  repentance  in 
the  sense  of  reformation,  lifting  the  drunkard  from  the  con- 
dition and  further  practice  of  the  habit,  will,  by  destroying 
the  cause,  save  him  from  further  disciplinary  punishment. 


EXEGETICAL    SPIRITUALISM  —  REPENTENCE.  291 

Effects,  however,  linger  long  after  the  operating  causes  have 
ceased  to  act,  as  rills  continue  to  flow  after  the  storm-clouds 
have  settled  away  in  the  distance. 

While  accepting  repentance  upon  a  philosophical  basis, 
Spiritualism  has  no  forgiveness  in  the  sense  of  negating  jus- 
tice— none  in  the  sense  of  warding  off  just  and  deserved 
punishment.  The  original  Greek  word  for  forgiveness  is 
Aphiemi  in  the  verbal,  and  Aphesis  in  the  substantive  form, 
literally  implying  "  putting  or  sending  away,  removal,  or 
deliverance  from."  It  is  sometimes  translated  by  the  Eng- 
lish words  (Luke  iv  :  18),  '*  deliverance  "  and  "  liberty  '* 

thus  :  "  to  preach  deliverance  to  the  captives,  and  to  set  at 
liberty  them  that  are  bound."  Punishment,  repentance  and 
forgiveness,  are  all  clearly  illustrated  in  the  wanderings, 
sufferings  and  return  to  a  father's  embrace  of  the  Prodigal 
Son. 

Repentance,  implying  sorrow  and  reformation,  Jesus 
taught  that  there  was  "joy  in  heaven  over  one  sinner  that 
repenteth."  This  work  continues  in  the  future  life.  The 
republic  of  the  ano^els  spans  all  worlds.  According  to  the 
"  Apostles'  creed,"  Jesus,  "  crucified,  dead  and  buried, 
descended  into  helV — the  invisible  state — the  under-world  of 
departed  spirits.  Speaking  of  this  descent  into  hell,  the  cele- 
brated Dr.  Campbell  confesses  that  "Jesus'  descriptions 
of  the  abodes  of  departed  souls,  were  not  drawn  from  the 
writings  of  the  Old  Testament,  but  have  a  remarkable 
affinity  to  the  descriptions  which  the  Grecian  poets  have 
given  of  them."  Enriched  by  the  scholarship  and  companion- 
ship of  the  evangelist  John,  and  conversant  with  the  Indian, 
?]gyptian  and  Grecian  philosophies,  this  would  be  perfectly 
natural  in  Jesus'  parabolic  descriptions  of  the  future 
existence. 

Admitting,  as  the  "  Apostles'  creed  "  affirms — the  descent 
into  hell — what  the  purpose?  That  prominent  disciple, 
Peter,  answers  :  "  Jesus  put  to  death  in  the  flesh,  I  ut  quick- 
ened by  the  spirit  by  which  he  also  went  and  preached  unto 
the  spirits  in  prison,  which  were  sometimes  disobedient  *  *  * 


292  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

in  the  days  of  Noah.  *  *  *  Por  this  cause  also  was  the 
gospel  preached  to  them  that  are  dead^  that  they  might  be 
judged  according  to  men  in  the  flesh,  but  live  according  to 
God  in  the  spirit." — (1  Peter  iii :  18,  and  iv:  6.)  Beautiful 
this  mission  of  Jesus  preaching  to  the  "  dead  " — preaching 
the  gospel  to  darkened  "  spirits  in  prison."  The  fact  of 
euch  preaching  implies  that  those  listening,  could,  and  would, 
be  benefited  and  permanently  reformed  by  practically  actual- 
izing the  divine  teachings.  Jesus'  sermon  on  the  mount 
was  not  his  last.  Reformers  continue  their  redemptive 
efforts  in  the  world  of  spirits.  This  is  natural.  Teaching 
and  being  taught  is  to  be  the  work  of  eternity.  That  "  cloud 
of  witnesses,"  summering  in  the  magnetic  strata  that  envel- 
ope the  earth  in  concentric  circles,  thus  testify. 

Marked  individualities,  nationalities  and  conditions  pertain 
to  all  lower  realms  of  progressive  life.  "In  my  Father's 
house,"  said  Jesus,  "  are  many  mansions.''  There  are  palatial 
homes  for  the  angelic,  and  prison-houses  for  "  prisoners  of 
hope."  These  prison-spheres  are  the  temporary  residences 
of  ignorant  and  angular  spirits.  Their  psychological  control 
is  not  to  be  courted.  It  produces  disorder.  The  Apostles 
had  power  to  cast  out,  or  dispossess  such.  By  their  "fruits 
ye  shall  know  them."  Their  emanations,  rising  like  vapory 
flames,  correspond  to  their  moral  states.  To  angel  eyes  these 
aural  clouds  appear  dull,  hazy,  dark.  Light  from  the  celestial 
heavens  streams  in  divine  radiance  all  through  these  aromal 
stratifications.  The  divine  Presence — the  heavenly  arabula — 
is  everywhere  manifest.  Love  encircles  all.  God  and  heaven 
triumph.  Preceded,  therefore,  by  repentance  and  reconcil- 
iation, holiness  and  happiness  will  be  the  certain  destiny  of  a 
universe  of  conscious  and  reasoning  intelligences.  All  will 
find  this  heaven — this  paradise  of  bliss — wh.en  they  ar^ 
spiritually  imparadised  in  God. 


Chaptei^  XXXlli, 


LAW  OF  JUDGMENT. 


'  Justice  is  a  theorem  ;  punishment  is  as  exact  as  Euclid ;  crime  hag  ita 
angles  of  incidence,  and  its  angles  of  reflection  ;  and  we  men  tremble  when  to 
perceive  in  the  obscurity  of  human  destiny  the  lines  and  figures  of  that 
enormous  geometry  which  the  dunce  calls  chance,  and  the  thinking  man 
Providence." 

"Richer  for  the  storms  and  trials, 
Finer  for  the  searching  fire  ; 
Let  each  flame  that  scathes  thy  spirit 
Draw  thee  to  the  angels  higher." 

Egyptian  Judges,  occupying  official  seats  of  honor,  wore, 
as  insignia,  breast-plates  of  judgment.  Jewish  high-priests, 
copying  after  Egypt,  put  on  the  breast-plates,  ephod,  robe 
and  girdle,  adding  to  the  breast-plate  of  judgment  the  Urim 
and  Thummim.  Christianity,  modified  by  Buddhism  and 
Hellenism,  is  grafted  upon  Judaism ;  hence  the  phrases 
judgment-seat  and  judgment. 

The  literal  import  of  the  Greek  term — Krisis — judgment, 
implies  rule,  government.  As  a  scriptural  doctrine,  rightly 
interpreted,  it  has  no  reference  to  a  "future  general  ]n([g- 
ment"  in  the  spirit  world.  These  are  among  the  biblical 
expressions : 

"  Sampson  judged  Israel  twenty  years." — 1  Sam.  viii. 
"  According  to  their  ways  and  doings  I  judged  them  " — past  time.-- 
Ez.  xxxvi.  :  19. 

"  Verily  he  is  a  God  that  judgeth  in  the  earth." — Jer.  9. 

293 


294  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

"I  am  the  L(.r(l  wliirli  oxercisctli  loving  kindness,  Judgment,  and 
righteousness  in  the  earth." — 7^.  96  :  10-13. 

"The  Father  judgeth  no  man  ;  but  hath  committed  all  judgment  tc 
the  Son :'— John  \.  :  22. 

"  For  judgment  I  am  come  into  this  world." — Jolui  ix. :  39. 

"  As  I  hear — (clairaudiantly) — I  judge;  and  my  judgment  is  just; 
because  I  seek  not  mine  own  will — (medium-like) — but  the  will  of  the 
Father."— JoAw  v.  :  '^^ 

Judgment  and  justice  are  requisites  in  all  moral  govern- 
ments. Especially  is  this  true  during  the  growth  of  souls 
through  experiences  into  tiign  spiritual  states  of  being. 
Divine  penalties,  as  eifects,  are  neither  postponed,  nor  evaded 
by  atonements. 

When  the  immoral  and  oppressive  Felix  swayed  a  sceptre 
of  power  over  a  Judean  province,  the  inspired  Paul  "rea- 
soned with  him  of  righteousness,  temperance  and  judgment 
to  come,"  till  he  trembled.  It  was  not,  however,  suffering 
to  be  endured  in  an  eternitv  to  which  he  was  hastenino;  that 
caused  the  trembling,  but  rather  of  a  judgment  to  come — to 
come  to  him^  to  all,  as  the  natural  consequences  of  plunging 
into  false  relations  with  divine  laws.  Man,  a  moral  actor,  is 
a  subject  of  law,  a  responsible  being,  reaping  anguish  from 
vice,  and  enjoyment  from  virtue. 

Originally  the  dogma  of  a  future  general  judgment  was  an 
Eg3'ptian  myth.  It  has  traveled  down  to  us  through  a  Juda- 
ized  Christianity.  Where  volcanic  fires  concentrate,  there 
they  burst;  where  storms  gather,  there  they  spend  their 
fury ;  where  and  what  men  sow,  there  and  that  they  reap. 
Jesus  said  expressly,  '■^  Now  is  the  judgment  of  this  world." 
Whoever  did  a  base  deed,  whoever  defrauded  his  brother,  and 
slept  sweetly  through  the  shades  of  night?  Every  man  has 
a  judgment-scat  in  his  own  soul.  The  recording  angel  is 
there  also.  Conscience  is  judge;  reason  is  judge;  truth  is 
judge.  Before  this  august  tribunal  mortals  stand  each  day, 
each  hour,  approved  or  condemned. 

Memory  is  the  undying  worm.    Thoughts,  affections,  plans, 
accompany  souls  into  the  future  world.    Each  there  gravitates 


EXEGETICAL    SPIRITUALISM  —  LAW    OF   JUDGMENT.  '295 

to  his  own  plane.  This  life  determines  the  commencement 
of  the  next  stage  of  existence. 

The  divine  law  by  which  individuals  are  judged  is  not 
penned  in  Yedas  or  TJpanishads,  in  Old  or  'New  Testaments, 
but,  mapping  the  universe,  is  written  in  ineffaceble  lines  of 
light  by  the  breath  of  the  Eternal  upon  man's  mental  and 
moral  constitution.  The  highest,  the  onli/  supreme  authority, 
13  the  voice  of  God  in  the  soul.  All  are  not  equally  amenable 
to  even  human  laws.  If  anything  has  been  demonstrated  in 
mental  science,  it  is  that  hereditary  taint  may  so  penetrate 
the  substance  of  an  individual's  being,  as  to  weaken  his  will- 
force  and  put  his  tendencies  into  the  pathway  of  perverted 
relations  toward  that  which  tends  to  the  highest  good.  The 
incompatibility  of  social  relationships,  ante-natal  conditions, 
early  education  and  physical  comforts,  exercise  such  an 
influence  over  individuals  as  in  many  respects  to  absolutely 
control  their  motives.  Such  are  more  the  subjects  of  pity 
and  compassion  than  objects  of  blame.  Instead  of  peniten- 
tiaries, hospitals  and  houses  of  correction  should  be  erected, 
and  reform-schools  opened  for  these  unfortunates,  with  wise 
and  loving  teachers  and  pleasant  surroundings.  Said  the 
gentle  Jesus,  "I  come  not  to  condemn,  but  save  the  world." 

All  being  divine  in  the  innermost,  the  lowest  have  a  dim 
consciousness  of  the  good,  the  just,  the  right.  In  the  infinite 
administration,  the  scales  of  justice  balance.  Vice  and  emen- 
datory  penalties  shoot  up  from  the  same  soil.  The  thief  sees, 
after  a  time,  he  has  stolen  from  himself.  The  deceiver  that 
he  has  deceived  himself — not  nature,  angels,  God.  The  slan- 
derer discovers  that  his  poisoned  javelins  all  return  to 
pierce  his  own  heart.  All  learn  that  what  thej^  throw  out 
returns  with  increase,  and  that  it  is  impossible  to  hide  away 
from  one's  conscious  selfhood,  or  escape  the  legitimate  result 
of  voluntary  acts.  Feelings,  thoughts,  deeds  are  from  the 
inner  life,  and,  changing  the  relation  of  things,  are,  in  one 
sense,  eternal  in  their  effect.  Each  sweet  hope  cherished  is 
an  immortal  flower.  Every  ill-purpose  conceived  is  a  poi- 
sonous breath  that  Uvea  '-.o  blight.     Our  thoughts,  aims,  plans 


296  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

are  carved  upon  our  spiritual  natures.  As  the  woven  web 
here,  so  the  garment  over  there.  What  responsibilities! 
Heaven  help  us  to  weave  life's  web  well! 

Rocks,  trees,  flowers,  men  have  radiating  emanations — 
atmospheres  peculiarly  their  own.  The  nature  of  this  elec- 
tric sphere  surrounding  mortals  corresponds  to  the  soil's 
unfoldment.  Jesus,  ever  seeing  this  magnetic  effluence 
through  his  clairvoyance,  "  knew  what  was  in  man."  This 
electric  envelope  around  the  gross  and  depraved  is  hazy  and 
murky.  Around  the  merely  intellectual  it  appears  clear,  cold 
and  positive,  with  bluish  shadings.  Around  the  genial,  spir- 
itual and  harmonial,  it  is  bright  and  silvery,  mellowing  into 
the  golden.  This  idea  is  elaborated  in  the  Scriptures  with 
reference  to  spirit-clothing.  Matthew  writes,  "  The  angel 
of  the  Lord  descended  from  heaven,  rolled  back  the  stone 
from  the  door,  *  *  *  and  his  raiment  was  white  as  snow." 
Luke  says,  "  They  found  the  stone  rolled  away,  *  *  *  and 
two  men  stood  by  them  in  shining  garments,^''  It  is  said  that 
on  the  mount,  "  Jesus's  face  did  shine  as  the  sun,  *  *  *  and 
his  raiment  was  white  as  the  light.''  When  Cornelius  was 
praying,  he  says,  '*  A  man  stood  before  him  in  bright  cloth- 
ing." The  light  that  shone  round  about  Paul  was  *' above 
the  brightness  of  the  sun ;  "  and  John,  entranced  upon  the 
Isle  of  Patmos,  perceived  that  those  who  had  *'  overcome  were 
clothed  in  white  robes.''  Overcome  what?  Their  perversions, 
passions  and  earthly  appetites.  As  the  flower  imbibes  the 
dew  or  sunlight,  so,  revealed  before  the  heavens,  are  our 
spheres  both  seen  and  felt  by  ministering  angels  by  whom 
we  are  thus  weighed  as  in  a  balance  and  credited  exactly  for 
what  we  are  worth  in  the  "  Book  of  Life  " — even  our  own 
soul.  Appropriately  Paul  afllrmed,  "  The  saints  shall  judge 
the  world."  The  chancery  angel — -judgment  and  justice — 
is  a  daily  attendant  of  each  through  the  vicissitudes  of  our 
eternal  pilgrimage.  What  an  incentive  to  live  a  pure,  divine 
life. 


PHAin^Ei^    XXXiV. 


EVIL  SPIRITS. 


"What  men  call  evil,  only  is 

The  germinating  seed, 

From  whence,  by  sure  development, 

Shall  spring  good  fruit  indeed. 

And  man  all  evil  shall  outgrow, 

In  spite  of  doubts  and  fears  ; 
.  In  faith  and  hope  shall  plume  his  wing. 

And  soar  to  brighter  spheres." 

Illumined  thinkers  can  never  force  themselves  to  believe 
that  evil,  as  an  end,  essential  and  absolute,  can  exist  under 
the  moral  government  of  an  infinite  God  whose  nature  is 
goodness,  whose  essence  is  love.  But,  from  the  stand-point 
of  observation,  there  are  conditions  and  diverse  actions, 
resultant  of  human  conduct,  designated  by  moral  philoso- 
phers as  evil.  Comparison  is  elemental  in  human  nature. 
Contrasts  there  must  be.  Can  better  terms  be  found  to 
express  certain  qualities,  certain  properties  and  relations  in 
the  physical  world,  than  straight  lines  and  curves,  heat  and 
cold,  light  and  darkness— better  terms  to  express  certain 
moral  conditions  in  the  conscious  reasoning  world  than  wis- 
dom and  folly,  truth  and  error,  good  and  evil  ?  All  these 
are  relative  in  significance,  of  course,  and  consequently  the 
more  applicable  to  men  and  spirits,  as  finite  existences. 

All  counsels,  exhortations,  commands— all  rewards  and 
punishments — all  praise  and  reproof  in  learned  bodies— all 
jurisprudence    and    orderly   society,    are   baped    upon    the 

297 


298  DOCTRINES    OF   SPIRITUALISTS. 

ground  that  men  are  moral  actors  and  capable  of  good  and 
evil.  The  reason  why  moral  precepts  are  addressed  to  men 
and  women  rather  than  to  the  lower  orders  of  creation,  is 
because  they  have  a  rational  and  spiritual  nature ;  because 
tliey  can  understand  moral  obligation,  and  are  conscious  of  a 
divine  consciousness  within  them.  Moral  ability  measures 
the  extent  of  ir.c  r  il  respo'i.^'tl!!":"".  ^  icording  to  the 
original  gift,  so  is  the  expected  measure  of  he  talent. 

That  there  are  educated  and  ignorant,  good  and  bad  men  on 
earth,  are  not  debatable  propositions.  Death,  being  more 
chemical  than  psychical,  a  mere  musical  ripple  upon  the 
ocean  of  life,  and  neither  a  spasmodic  educator  or  savior, 
there  necessarily  must  be  educated  and  uneducated,  good  and 
evil  spirits,  of  higher  or  lower  conditions  in  the  summer  and 
winter  lands  of  the  future,  so  constantly  peopled  from  thi^ 
earth.  And  yet,  as  on  earth,  they  all  constitute  a  banded 
brotherhood  and  sisterhood  of  interests,  and  are  the  subjects 
of  eternal  progression. 

Prof.  Wm.  Denton,  in  a  lecture  delivered  in  Music  Hall, 
Boston,  entitled,  "  Spiritualism  Superior  to  Christianit}-," 
said:  '^  N^o  wonder  that  those  who  believe  in  this  Ortho- 
dox religion,  believe  also,  that  we  shall  be  miraculously 
changed  at  death.  But  Spiritualism  teaches  us  that  spirits 
when  they  pass  from  the  body  to  the  future  life,  take  with 
them  everything  which  is  necessary  for  their  individuality. 
Take  out  of  any  one  the  good  or  bad  tendencies  that  dis- 
tinguish him,  and  he  will  become  somebody  else  immedi- 
ately." 

Admitting  an  intercommunion  between  this  and  the  spirit- 
world — a  conscious  presence  of  spiritual  beings,  and  of 
minds  influencing  minds,  as  among  the  facts  connected  wiUi 
the  Spiritual  Philosophy,  it  is  as  natural  as  evident  that  all 
classes  of  spirits  may,  under  conditions  adapted  to  their 
magnetic  and  spiritual  states,  impress,  inspire,  entrance,  and 
at  times  partially,  and  then  again  completely,  control  mortals. 
The  higher   operating  influences  are  usually   denominated 


EXEGETICAL    SPIRITUALISM  —  EVIL    SPIRITS.  21)9 

eiitrancements  and  inspirations ;  the  lower,  possessions  and 
obsessions. 

Threading'  the  historic  testimony  of  India,  Egypt,  China 
Persia,  Syria,  Greece,  Rome,  the  medieval  ages,  down  to 
American  Indians,  we  have  the  same  chain  of  general  state- 
ments— by  willing  or  unwilling  witnesses — of  the  existence 
and  power  of  demoniacal   spirits. 

We  have  previously  shown  by  valid  authors  that  the  term 
demon  is  used  indiscriminately  without  reference  to  the 
moral  status  of  the  spirit.  In  further  confirmation,  as 
evidence  in  point,  we  subjoin  the  following: 

Demon,  in   the  Greek,  is  daimoji,  to  know,  a  god,  used   like 
Theos  and  Thea  of    individual  gods     It  is  defined  and  used 
by  scholars,  lexicographers  and  classical  writers  thus: 
Jones — Demon,  "  the  spirit  of  a  dead  man." 
Oudwortli — Demon,  "  a  spirit,  either  angel  or  fiend." 
Grote,    the    celebrated    Grecian    historian,    declares    that 
"  demons  and  gods  were  considered  the  same  in  Greece." 

Lucianus,  a  Greek  writer,  born  at  Samosata,  in  Syria, 
used  demon  in  the  sense  of  ''  departed  souls." 

Archbishop  Whateley  says  :  "  Tiie  heathen  authors  allude 
to  possession  by  a  demon  (or  by  a  god,  for  they  employ  the 
two  words  with  little  or  no  distinction)  as  a  thing  of  no 
uncommon  occurrence." 

The  Psalmist  David  speaks  of  the  "  operation  of  evil 
angels.'  " 

Plato,  speaking  of  a  certain  class  of  demons,  says  : 

'•  They  are  demons  because  prudent  and  learned.  *  »=  * 
[lence,  poets  say  when  a  good  man  shall  have  reached  his  end,  he 
receives  a  mighty  destiny  and  honor,  and  becomes  a  demon  accordino- 
to  the  appellation  of  prudence." 

Worcester,  in  his  synonyms,  says : 

"Demon  is  sometimes  used  in  a  good  sense;  as,  'The  demon  of 
Socrates,  or  the  demon  of  Tasso' — and  then,  to  illustrate,  quotes  from 
that  fine  author,  Addison  :  ^ly  good  demon,  who  sat  at  my  ri^-ht 
hand  during  the  couise  of  this  whole  vision,'  "  &c. 


300  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

That  learned  savant,  Cardan,  honored  with  the  friei.  dehip 
of  Gregory  XIII,  says: 

"  No  man  was  ever  great  in  any  art  or  action,  that  did  not  have  a 
demon  to  aid  him." 

Ralph  Waldo  Emerson   writes  : 

*'  Close,  close  above  our  heada 
The  potent  plain  of  demons  spreads; 
Stands  to  each  human  soul  his  own, 
For  watch,  and  ward,  and  furtherance," 

Dr.  Lardner  writes: 

"  The  notion  of  demons,  or  the  souls  of  the  dead,  having  power  ovei 
living  men,  was  universally  prevalent  among  the  heathen  of  those 
times,  and  believed  by  many  Christians. 

"  The  demons  of  Paganism,  Judaism  and  Christianity  were  spirits  of 
dead  men." 

Euripides,  Hipp,  v,  141)  makes  the  chorus  address 
Phedra : 

"  0  young  girl,  a  god  (demon)  possesses  thee ;  it  is  either  Pan,  or 
Hecate,  or  the  venerable  Cory  ban  tes,  or  Cybele,  that  agitates  thee." 

Dr.  Campbell  says; 

"  All  Pagan  antiquity  affirms  that  from  Titan  and  Saturn,  the  poetic 
progeny  of  Coelus  and  Terra,  down  to  ^sculapius,  Proteus,  and  Minos, 
all  their  divinities  were  ghosts  of  dead  nien^  and  were  so  regarded  by 
the  most  erudite  of  the  Pagans  themselves." 

Bishop  Whately  ably  argues  for  the  "  reality  of  demoniac 
possession,"  as  related  in  the  E'ew  Testament,  against  those 
rationalizing  critics  who  would  explain  away  the  narrativ^es 
and  the  language  of  Christ  himself  as  simply  an  "  accommo- 
dation" to  a  vulgar  superstition.  He  shows  that  the  belief 
in  spiritual  possession  was  held,  not  only  by  the  Jews  and 
primitive  Christians,  but  generally  by  heathen  antiquity, 
that  "  the  heathen  authors  allude  to  possession  by  a  demon 
(or  by  a  god,  for  they  used  the  two  words  with  little  or  no 
distinction),  as  a  thing  of  no  uncommon  occurrence."  He 
tells  us    that  they   represent  the  priests   and  priestesses    of 


EXEGETICAL    SPIRITUALISM  —  EVIL    SPIRITS.  301 

their  celebrated  oracles  as  possessed  of  a  spirit  of  divination 
similar  to  that  of  the  damsel  of  Philippi  mentioned  in  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles.  He  considers  that  the  agency  attri- 
buted to  demons  in  the  Xew  Testament,  '*  was  not  a  mere 
fanciful  description  in  figurative  language  of  natural  diseases, 
but  literally  and  undoubtedly  a  fact." 

Certain-churchites  consider  all  demons  "•  evil  spirits" — that 
is,  irredeemable,  fallen  angels.  On  the  other  hand,  a  few 
German  Rationalists  and  many  Universalists,  theorizing  out- 
side of  facts,  and  recently  well  established  principles  of 
psychological  science,  regard  "  demons,"  all  the  spiritual 
beings  of  the  spirit-world,  as  perfect  and  holy.  The  truth 
lies  between  these  extremes.  Demons  are  simply  the 
immortalized  men  of  the  other  life  —  spirits  occupying 
various  planes  or  mansions  in  that  "  house  not  made  with 
hands" — the  temple  of  the  Eternal. 

The  Yedas,  Puranas  and  Upanishads,  abound  in  references 
to  the  Dei'atas  and  Soors — good  angels  and  subordinate 
celestial  beings;  and  to  XhQ  Dews,  Asoors  SLudDanoos  —  evil 
spirits,  and  the  method  of  destroying  their  influences. 
Upham  says  this  "  doctrine  of  demons,  in  full  force  to- 
day in  the  island  of  Ceylon,  is  older  than  Buddhism. 
Grotama  found  it  when  he  there  made  his  appearance,  540  B. 
C.   (Asl.  Res.  viii,  531.) 

The  Chaldean  philosophy,  with  whom  at  Babylon  the 
Jews  had  so  much  to  do,  contains  an  elaborately  constructed 
system  relative  to  the  obsessional  powers  of  demons. 
Speaking  of  the  devices  they  employ  to  carry  out  their  arts 
and  selfish  schemes,  Psallus,  quoting  from  Marcus,  of 
Mesopotamia,  says : 

"  They  eflfect  these  things  not  as  having  dominion  over  us,  and 
carrying  us  as  their  slaves  withersoever  they  please,  but  by  suggestion) 
for  applying  themselves  to  the  spirit  which  is  within  us,  they  them- 
selves being  spirits  also,  they  instil  discourses  of  affections  and 
pleasures,  not  by  voice  verberating  the  air,  but  by  whisper  insinuating 
their  discourse.         *         =^         ^^      ^         *>         ^ 

If  the  msinuating  demon  be  one  of  the  subterraneous  kind,  he 
distorteth    he  possessed  person,  and  speaking  by  him,  maketh  use  of  his 


30*2  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

Ungual  organs  to  convey  his  ideas.     *     *     *     Others  stop  the  v.ice, 
and  make  the  possessed  person  in  all  respects  like  one  that  is  dead.'' 

No  one  can  fail  to  see  the  resemblance  between  these 
paragraphs  and  statements,  and  certain  disorderly  "  spirit 
manifestations"  of  the  ISTew  Testament.  Take  an  instance 
from  the  gospels  : 

"  And  one  of  the  multitude  said :  Master,  I  have  brought  unto 
thee  my  son,  which  hath  a  dumb  spirit  ;  and  wheresoever  he  taketh 
him  he  teareth  him,  and  he  foameth  and  gnasheth  with  his  teeth,  and 
piueth  away.  *  *  *  And  the  spirit  cried  and  rent  him  sore  and 
came  out  of  him  ;  and  he  was  as  one  dead  ;  insomuch  that  many 
said,  He  is  dead." 

The  learned  Marcus,  writing  of  another  kind  of  demon — 
undeveloped  spirit — says  : 

*'  And  because  it  is  irrational,  void  of  all  intellectual  contemplation, 
and  is  guided  by  irrational  phantasy,  it  stands  not  in  awe  of  menaces, 
and  for  that  reason  most  persons  aptly  call  it  dumb  and  deaf,  nor  can 
they  who  are  possessed  with  it  by  any  other  means  be  freed  from  it, 
but  by  the  divine  favor  obtained  by  fasting  and  prayer." 

See  a  similar  account  in  the  ninth  chapter  of  Mark,  where 
a  Jew  brought  his  son  to  Jesus,  possessed  with  a  dumb 
spirit: 

And  Jesus  asked  his  father,  How  long  is  it  since  this  came  unto 
him?  And  he  said.  Of  a  child.  =i«  *  *  If  thou  canst  do  anything, 
have  compassion  on  us  and  help  us. 

Jesus  said  unto  him,  If  thou  canst  believe ;  all  things  are  possible 
to  him  that  believeth. 

And  straightway  the  father  of  the  child  cried  out  and  said  with 
tears,  Lord,  I  believe;  help  thou  mine  unbelief 

When  Jesus  saw  the  people  come  running  together,  he  rebuked  the 
foul  spirit,  saying  unto  him,  Thou  deaf  and  dumb  spirit,  I  charge  thee 
come  out  of  him  and  enter  no  more  into  him.  And  the  spirit  cried 
and  rent  him  sore  and  came  out  of  him,  and  he  was  as  one  dead. 

But  Jesus  took  him  by  the  hand  and  lifted  him  up,  and  he  arose. 

Then  Jesus  said  to  the  disciples,  This  kind  can  come  forth  by 
nothing  but  by  prayer  and  fasting." 

Aware  that  these  demoniacal  possessions  of  the  'New  Testa- 
ment have  been  the  subject  of  much  discussion  for  centuries 
by  the  learned,  we  present  certain  logical  facts  for  candia 


EXEGETICAL    SPIRITUALISM  —  EVIL    SPIRITS.  808 

consideration.  The  Christian  Fathers,  several  ITeo-Platonic 
writers  of  eminence,  and  the  most  distinguished  bihlical 
commentators,  with  great  unanimity  agree  that  these 
obsessions  literally  occurred.  The  position  of  "  Rationalists" 
and  "  Universalists"  that  tliese  demons  were  nothing  more 
thaL  lunacy,  epilepsy  and  sundry  diseases,  must  seem  to 
every  sound  thinker  exceedingly  weak  and  illogical. 

I.  The  demoniacs  of  the  gospel  records  and  cotemporary 
literature  are  represented  as  differing  widely  from  more 
insane  and  epileptic  individuals.  In  Matt,  iv  :  24,  the  Greek 
terms  show  this  contrast  in  a  marked  manner.  See  also 
Luke  iv  :  33-36.  And  verse  41,  as  compared  with  the  40th, 
presents  the  contrast  still  more  direct.  Dr.  Clarke,  com- 
menting upon  the  24th  verse  of  the  4th  of  Matt.,  says, 
"  Possessed  with  devils — demoniacs.  Persons  possessed  by 
evil  spirits.  This  is  certainly  the  plain,  obvious  meaning  of 
demoniac  in  the  Gospels."     (Com.,  Yol.  Y,  p.  62.) 

II.  If  demons  were  simply  natural,  physical  diseases,  was 
it  not  a  matter  of  the  highest  importance  that  Jesus  should 
have  undeceived  his  cotemporaries,  Jews  and  Greeks,  upo,^ 
this  vital  point,  thus  correcting  the  erroneous  and  pernicious 
philosophy  of  the  age  ?  But  he  did  not  in  a  single  instance.. 
To  say,  as  some  have,  he  accommodated  himself  to  the  pre- 
vailing notions  of  the  times,  is  simply  to  say,  in  the  language 
of  another,  "  He  who  came  to  bear  witness  to  the  truth, 
accommodated  himself  to  a  lieJ^  Suppose  we  were  to  sub- 
stitute diseases  for  demons,  in  the  scriptural  accounts.  Take, 
as  an  illustration,  Mark  xvi :  9,  reading,  "  !N"ow  when  Jesus 
was  risen,  *  '^  *  he  appeared  first  to  Mary  Magdalen, 
out  of  whom  he  had  cast  seven  devils  " — daimonia,  demons. 
Who,  with  any  scholarly  reputation  at  stake,  would  assume 
the  responsibility  of  giving  us  such  a  rendering  and  exegesis 
as  the  following  :  "Out  of  whom  he  had  cast  seven  devils  " — 
that  is,  seven  diseases,  lunacy  lumbago,  dyspepsia,  rheuma- 
tism, colic,  pneumonia  and  the  measles  ! 

in.  These  obsessing  demons  could  not  have  been  diseases 
and  lunatics  alone,  because  they  conversed  intelligently  with 


304  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

Jesus,  ittering  propositions  undeniably  correct,  and  ouch  aa 
were  happily  adapted  to  the  occasion.  On  the  other  hand, 
Jesus  addressed  these  demons — spirits — as  thinking,  conscious 
individualities,  and  commanded  them,  as  beings  distinct 
from  the  obsessed  or  psychologized  parties,  to  leave.  The 
Rev.  Dr.  Woltf,  who  labored  so  long  as  a  missionary  in 
Asia,  informs  us,  in  his  "  Life  and  Travels,"  that  obsession 
is  common  to  this  day  in  the  East. 

In  the  writings  of  the  early  Church  Fathers, — Ignatius, 
Clemens,  Origen,  Basil,  Gregory  of  Kyssa,  Chrysostom, 
Ambrose,  Augustine,  &c.,  —  are  frequent  references  to 
demoniacal  obsessions. 

Judge  Edmonds  in  his  "  Spiritualism  as  Demonstrated 
from  Ancient  and  Modern  History,"  says :  Jesus  of 
Nazareth,  the  founder  of  the  Christian  religion,  found  this 
belief  in  devils  {demons)  fast  rooted  in  the  Jewish  faith  at  his 
advent  to  earth!  It  had  not  its  origin  with  him.  He  found 
it  there,  and  recognized  it  as  a  truth.'' 

Porphyry,  dwelling  largely  "  upon  the  folly  of  invoking 
the  gods  in  making  bargains,  marriages  and  such  like 
trifles,"  strenuously  condemned  the  lower  phases  of 
soothsaying  and  divination,  as  tending  to  obsession. 
Jamblichus,  the  Coelo-Syrian  who  passed  to  spirit-life  in  the 
reign  of  Constantine  the  Great,  wrote  largely  of  the  power  of 
demons  to  influence  and  obsess  mortals.  ''' 

In  Copeland's  Medical  Dictionary  it  is  stated  that 
Phcenecians  and  Chaldees  considered  insanity  a  species  of 
"  obsession  produced  by  demons  or  evil  spirits." 

It  will  be  remembered  that  the  famous  physicist,  and 
English  physician,  Dr.  Grath  Wilkinson,  published  an  able 
pamphlet  a  few  years  since  upon  this  subject,  asking  such  of 
the   medical   fraternity    especially  as  were  connected   with 


^A.  E.  Carpenter,  the  energetic  agent  of  the  Massachusetts  State  Mission- 
ary  Society,  of  Spiritualists,  and  gifted  with  a  clear  discrimination,  pub- 
lished an  able  paper  based  upon  facts,  (in  the  Banner  of  Light,  July  25,  1868,) 
relating  to  obsessions  and  remarkable  spiritual  manifestations. 


EXEGETICAL    SPIRITUALISM  —  EVIL    SPIRITS.  305 

Lunatic  Asylums  to  recognize  in  Spiritualism — in  magnetism 
and  spiritualistic  treatment — the  surest  remedies  for  restor- 
ing the  insane  and  the  obsessed,  (so-called  insane)  to  sanity 
and  a  healthy,  organic  balance. 

Strauss,  the  celebrated  German  writer,  in  one  of  his 
friendly  papers,  when  making  the  amende  honorable  to  Kerner 
for  his  severe  criticism  upon  the  "  Seeress  of  Prevorst," 
^ives  the  following  agreeable  description  of  life  beneath 
Kerner's  roof: 

"  A  more  beautiful  or  refined  hospitality  it  would  be  difficult  to 
encounter  in  any  dwelling.  Amongst  the  numerous  strangers  who 
each  year  visit  Kerner's  home,  there  is  not  one  whose  peculiarities  are 
not  recognized  and  to  whom  especial  attention  is  not  paid.  *  *  * 
No  wonder  is  it  that  here  persons  tormented  by  evil  spirits  seek  for  aid 
and  healing  !  The  good  spirits  must  infallibly  drive  away  the  evil 
demons.  An  Angel  of  Peace  appears  to  brood  over  this  household.  A 
sense  of  order,  of  quiet  gayety  and  benevolence,  is  seen  to  beam  from 
all  countenances,  is  felt  in  all  that  is  beheld  and  heard." 

Why  are  evil — undeveloped  spirits — allowed  to  return  ? 
Why  does  God  unbar  the  gate  immortal  to  all  conditions  of 
spirit  life  for  every  quality  of  control,  knowing  that  mischief 
will  be  wrought  and  misery  produced  ?  As  well  ask,  why 
did  God  constitute  man  a  moral  actor  ?  Why  is  suffering 
permitted  in  this  world?  Why  does  might  prevail  over 
right?  Why  is  confidence  betrayed,  virtue  outraged,  the 
honest  robbed,  and  peace-rnen  murdered  ?  We  must  accept 
facts  as  they  are,  and  build  thereon  true  philosophies. 
What  if  through  such  hells  humanity  must  necessarily  pass 
to  heaven,  shall  we  therefore  complain  of  the  divinity  that 
educes  order  from  discord  ?  The  rainbow  from  the  cloud, 
the  lily  from  the  mud,  the  crystal  spring  from  the  sand,  the 
sweet  summer  from  the  frozen  winter,  the  immortal  from 
the  mortal,  life  from  seeming  death— is  not  this  development? 
"  It  must  needs  be  that  offences  come."  Nothing  so  sancti- 
fies the  soul  as  moral  victory  over  temptations ;  must  not 
therefore  temptations  be,  as  all  pictures  have  shadings 
for  expressive  sympathy  ?  The  right  is  not  in  the  wrong ; 
20 


306  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

but  the  triumph  over  wrong.  Virtue  is  not  vice,  but  the 
destruction  of  vice  by  the  supremacy  of  vh'tue.  To  drive 
away  darkness  from  a  room,  introduce  light.  Good  is 
primal,  eternal — evil  is  incidental.  All  endings  are  like 
beginnings.     In  spite  of  evil  God  governs. 

Like  attracts  like.  Every  door  must  have  a  hinge  to 
swing  upon.  No  evil  spirit  can  approach  us  unless — morally 
weak — we  possess  a  magnet  within,  attracting  correspond- 
iuii-  influences.  This,  so  painful  to  endure,  is  the  lesson  of 
our  frailty,  teaching  the  moral  necessity  of  fostering  better 
conditions  for  more  heavenly  relations. 

Sensitiveuess  to  psychological  influx,  susceptibihty  to 
mediumistic  control,  implies  higher  and  lower  use,and  abuse. 
Will  not  the  tender  flower  be  touched  by  the  frost  as  w^ell  as 
by  the  sunbeam  ?  The  greater  the  capacity  to  rise  involves 
a  similar  capacity  to  fall.  The  charm  of  a  darkened  demon 
is  as  potent  as  an  angel's,  where  a  point  of  ingress  is 
possible.  Then,  according  to  the  apostolic  injunction  uf 
John,    trust   not— "believe    not  every    spirit,    but   try   the 

spirits !" 

If  spirits  uncultured  and  evil,  impress,  and,  at  times,  com- 
pletely obsess  mortals,  is  not  the  practical  of  phenomenal 
Spiritualism  dangerous?  Yes,  dangerous  as  the  sunshine, 
that,  falling  alike  on  flowers  and  thorns,  the  just  and  the 
unjust,  produces  an  occasional  sun-stroke;  dangerous  as  the 
spring  rains  that,  sweeping  away  old  rickety  bridges,  carries 
rich  alluvial  to  the  valley  below;  dangerous  as  steamers,  that 
now  and  then  send  bodies  down  to  And  graves  under  green 
sea-weeds,  whilst  on  their  beneflcent  missions  of  inter- 
national commerce;  dangerous  as  mining,  railroading, 
tele<>-raphing,  which  develop  the  hidden  wealth  of  a  nation, 
Shall  we  therefore  dispense  with  them?  Shall  none  pursue 
o-eological  pursuits  because  Hugh  Miller  committed  suicide  ? 
Briars  abound  where  berries  grow.  It  is  one  of  the  oflices  oi 
guardian  angels  to  protect  their  mediums  from  the  inharmo- 
nious magnetisms  of  unwise,  perverse  spirits,  and  the 
psj  chological  attractions  of  depraved  mortals. 


EXEGETICAL    SPIRITUALISM  —  EVIL    SPIRITS.  807 

Obsessions  being  adverse,  inauspicious,  psychological  IlAu- 
ences,  cast  upon  the  organism — being  the  thoughts  and  feel- 
ings of  individuals  controlled  by  such  spirits  as  are  necessi- 
tated in  accordance  with  the  immutable  laws  of  compensation 
to  range  for  a  season  the  lower  plains  of  life — the  preventive 
Hes  in  good  health,  good  nature  and  a  good  life,  in  the 
cultivation  of  broad,  loving,  aspirational  aims — a  firmness  of 
moral  principle — a  determined  purpose  to  do,  dare,  live  the 
right — a  calm  trust  in  the  overshadowing  presence  of  the 
Infinite,  and  the  holy  watch-care  of  those  beautiful  angels 
that  delight  to  do  the  will  of  heaven.  Ill-health,  nervous 
aflfections,  dejection,  despair,  suspicion,  jealousies,  expose  the 
subject  to  obsessions,  or  they  offer  suitable  conditions  for 
demons  inclined  to  fun,  mischief  or  base  schemings,  to  carry 
out  their  selfish  plans.  Truth  attracts  the  true,  wisdom  the 
wise,  love  the  lovely,  charity  the  charitable,  and  purity  the 
pure  of  all  worlds. 

Kindness  and  firmness,  aspiration  and  self-reliance, — 
pleasant  ,  physical,  social  and  mental  surroundings,  with 
gentle,  harmonizing,  magnetic  influences  from  circles  of 
spirit-electricians  through  noble,  pure-minded  media — these 
are  the  remedies.  Speak  to  the  obsessing  powers  as  men, 
brothers,  friends — reason  with  them  as  members  of  a  com- 
mon Father's  family,  and,  at  the  same  time,  demagnetizing 
the  subject,  bring  a  healthier,  purer  magnetism,  and  calmer, 
higher  and  more  elevating  influences  to  the  patient's  relief. 
Jesus'  wonderful  power  consisted  in  this :  He  was  the 
child  of  love — sweet  in  his  nature — harmonial  in  organiza- 
tion— intuitive  and  inspirational — consecrated  and  attended 
bv  a  "legion  of  ang-els";  all  of  which  peculiarly  fitted  him 
to  -'cast  out  demons" — that  is,  to  dissever  by  will-power, 
voice  and  touch,  aided  by  his  angels,  the  magnetic  relations 
woven  by  low  spirits  around  the  unfortunate  media  of  his 
time.  He  "  cast  seven  demons"  out  of  Mary  Magdalen — 
that  is,  he  cut  the  electric  chains,  or  demagnetizing,  dissi- 
pated the  aural  emanations  thrown  about  this  w^oman,  thus 
destroying   the      sympathetic    relations    and  psychological 


308  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

influences  thrust  upon  and  into  the  very  tissues  of  her  heing 
by  those  seven  demons — spirits. 

Those  who  lack  in  organic  balance  and  symmetry  of 
mental  expression,  being  negative,  and  hence  sensitive  and 
psychologically  mediumistic,  are  the  more  often  subjects  of 
disorderly  control,  during  the  changes  incident  to  develop- 
ment. Such  excite  our  sympathy.  We  would  brush  away 
every  tear — relieve  them  of  every  thorn-thrust;  but  in  no 
possible  way  would  we  convey  the  thought  of  their  non- 
responsibility.  All  mortals,  as  conscious  reasoning  beings, 
are  the  subjects  of  individual  responsibility.  Of  those  most 
gifted,  the  more  is  required.  It  is  enough  to  make  good 
men  sad  and  angels  weep  to  see  the  efforts  in  given  direc- 
tions, to  fasten  all  the  shortcomings  of  media  upon  the 
spirits;  thus  virtually  making  the  spirit-world  a  scape-goat 
for  all  the  ills  of  this  !     Influence  is  not  absolute  control. 

Socrates  and  Jesus  put  forth  every  possible  power  to  per- 
fect themselves  in  the  highest  knowledge  and  freshest 
mental  philosophy  of  their  time.  The  millions  of  American 
Spiritualists,  when  more  critically  studying  the  principles  of 
life,  the  necessity  of  temperamental  adaptation,  the  potency 
of  psychologic  force,  the  attractive  and  repellant  relations  of 
mind  to  mind,  (whether  in  or  out  of  human  bodies),  and 
the  special  conditions  as  well  as  the  general  laws  coimected 
with  and  governing  mediumship,  will  see  the  indispensability 
of  investigating  and  comprehending  science,  the  importance 
of  system,  order,  purity  of  purpose,  religious  association, 
consecration  to  the  best  work  of  the  age,  and  of  living  lives 
so  beautiful  and  heavenly,  that  angels  will  delight  to  daily  put 
our  hands  into  the  shining  palms  of  theirs,  and  lead  us  up  to 
mountains  of  hour'v  beatitude. 


.»< 


l.vHi^PTEI^    XXXV. 


HELL. 


"And  death  and  hell  delivered  up  the  dead  which  were  in  them.'' — Bible 

"What  Hell  may  be  I  know  not;  this  I  know — 
I  cannot  lose  the  presence  of  the  Lord  ; 
One  arm,  Humility,  takes  hold  upon 
His  dear  Humanity  ;  the  other,  Love, 
Clasps  his  Divinity.     So  where  I  go 
He  goes,  and  better  fire-walled  Hell  with  him 
Than  golden-gated  Paradise  without." — Tauler. 

Evangelical  denominations  originally  preached  the  doctrine 
of  literal  hell-torments. '  Rev.  Mr.  Benson,  Methodist  com- 
mentator, says : 

"Infinite  justice  arrests  their  guilty  souls,  and  confines  them  in  the 
dark  prison  of  hell,  till  they  have  satisfied  all  its  demands  by  their  per- 
sonal sufferings^  which,  alas !  they  can  never  do.  *  *  He  will  exert 
all  his  divine  attributes  to  make  them  as  wretched  as  the  capacity  of 
their  nature  will  admit.  *  ^  Number  the  stars  in  the  firmament, 
the  drops  of  rain,  sand  on  the  seashore;  and  when  thou  hast  finished 
the  calculation,  sit  down  and  number  up  the  ages  of  woe.  Let  every 
star,  every  drop,  every  grain  of  sand,  represent  one  million  of  tormenting 
ages.  And  know  that  as  many  more  millions  still  remain  behind,  and 
yet  as  many  more  behind  these,  and  so  on  without  end." 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Ambrose,  in  a  discourse  entitled  "  Dooms- 
day," pictures  the  torments  of  lost  souls  thus: 

"  When  the  damned  have  drunken  down  whole  draughts  of  brimstone 
one  day,  they  must  do  the  same  another  day.  The  eye  shall  be  tor- 
mented with  the  sight  of  devils,  the  ears  with  the  hideous  yellings  and 

309 


810  DOCTRINES    OF   SPIRITUALISTS. 

outcries  of  the  damned  in  flames^  the  nostrils  shall  be  smothered,  as  il 
were,  with  brimstone;  the  tongue,  the  hand,  the  foot,  and  every  part, 
sliall  fry  in  flames'* 

Rev.  Mr.  Emmons  wrote  in  his  series  of  sermons : 

"  The  happiness  of  the  elect  in  heaven  will,  I.>  part,  consist  in  wit- 
nessing the  torments  of  the  damned  in  hell.  An  i  among  these  it  may 
be  their  own  children,  parents,  husbands,  wives,  und  friends  on  earth. 
One  part  of  the  business  of  the  blessed  is  to  celebrate  the  doctrine  of 
reprobation.  While  the  decree  of  reprobation  is  eternally  executing  on 
the  vessels  of  wrath,  the  smoke  of  their  torment  will  be  eternally  ascend- 
ino-  in  view  of  the  vessels  of  mercy,  who,  instead  of  taking  the  part  of 
those  miserable  objects,  will  say,  'Amen,  hallelujah,  praise  the  Lord !'  " — 
Emmons's  Sermons,  xvi. 

"  When  they  (the  saints)  shall  see  how  great  the  misery  is  from  which 
God  hath  saved  them,  and  how  great  a  difference  he  hath  made  between 
their  state  and  the  state  of  others  who  were  by  nature,  and  perhaps  by 
practice,  no  more  sinful  and  ill-deserving  than  they,  it  will  give  them 
more  a  sense  of  the  wouderfulness  of  God's  grace  to  them.  Every  time 
they  look  upon  the  damned,  it  will  excite  in  them  a 'lively  and  admiring 
sense  of  the  grace  of  God  in  making  them  so  to  differ.  The  sight  of 
hell  torments  will  exalt  the  happiness  of  the  saints  forever." — /Z>., 
Sermon  xi, 

Eev.  Mr.  Edwards  penned  these  sentiments  in  his  "  Prac- 
tical Sermons :  " 

"  The  saints  in  glory  will  be  far  more  sensible  how  dreadful  the  wrath 
of  God  is,  and  will  better  understand  how  terrible  the  sufferings  of  the 
damned  are,  yet  this  will  be  no  occasion  of  grief  to  them,  but  rejoicing. 
They  will  not  be  sorry  for  the  damned ;  it  will  cause  no  uneasiness  or 
dissatisfaction  to  them,  but  on  the  contrary,  when  they  see  this  sight,  it 
will  occasion  rejoicing,  and  excite  them  to  joyful  praises." 

Rev.  Thomas  Boston,  in  his  "  Four-fold  State,''  informs  us 
tliat— 

"The  godly  wife  shall  applaud  the  justice  of  the  judge  in  the  con- 
demnation of  her  ungodly  husband.  The  godly  husband  shall  say  amen  ! 
to  the  damnation  of  her  who  lay  in  his  bosom  !  The  godly  parent  shall 
say  hnlleluiah!  at  the  passing  of  the  sentence  of  their  ungodly  child. 
And  the  godly  child  shall  from  the  heart  approve  the  damnation  of  his 
wicked  parents  who  begot  him,  and  the  mother  who  bore  him." — p.  336. 


EXEGETICAL    SPIRITUALISM  —  HELL.  81] 

Rev.  Thomas  Vincent,  a  Calvinistic  clergyman  of  the  past, 
indulges  in  the  following  strain : 

"  This  will  fill  them  (the  saints)  with  astonishing  admiration  and 
wondering  joy,  when  they  see  some  of  their  near  relatives  going  to  hell; 
their  fiithers,  their  mothers,  their  children,  their  husbands,  their  wives, 
their  intimate  friends  and  companions,  while  they  themselves  are  saved  ! 
*  *  *  Those  aflfections  they  now  have  for  relatives  out  of  Christ 
will  cease  ;  and  they  will  not  have  the  least  trouble  to  see  them  sentenced 
to  hell,  and  thrust  into  the  Jier^  furnace  !  " 

Rev.  James  Smith,  of  the  American  Tract  Society,  Cin- 
cinnati, published  the  following: 

"  The  fire  of  hell  is  such  that  multitudes  of  tears  will  not  quench  it, 
and  length  of  time  will  not  burn  it  out.  '  The  wrath  of  God  abideth  ] 
on  the  rejecter  of  Christ. — John  iii :  36. 

"  Oh,  eternity  !  eternity  !  Who  can  fathom  it  ?  Mariners  have  their 
plummet  to  measure  the  depths  of  the  sea;  but  what  line  or  plummet 
shall  we  use  to  fathom  the  depth  of  eternity  ?  The  breath  of  the  I.ord 
kindles  the  flames  of  the  pit,  (Isa.  xxx  :  33,)  and  where  shall  we  find 
waters  to  quench  those  flames  ?  Oh,  Eternity  !  If  all  the  body  of 
the  earth  and  the  sea  were  turned  to  sand,  and  all  the  space  up  to  the 
starry  heaven  were  nothing  but  sand,  and  if  a  little  bird  should  come 
once  every  thousand  years  and  take  away  in  her  bill  but  a  single  grain 
from  all  that  heap  of  sand,  what  numberless  years  and  ages  must  be 
spent  before  the  whole  of  that  vast  quantity  would  be  carried  away. 
Yet  if  even  at  the  end  of  all  that  time  the  sinner  might  come  out  of 
hell,  there  would  be  some  hope.  But  that  word  Forever  breaks  the 
heart.     '  The  smoke  of  their  torment  ascendeth  up  for  ever  and  ever.'  " 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Walworth,  son  of  the  formerly  distinguished 
Chancellor  Walworth,  of  ]S"ew  York,  in  a  discourse  describ- 
ing the  locality  and  intensity  of  hell,  said : 

"  The  Scriptures  had  invariably  spoken  of  hell  as  beneatfi  us,  not 
above  or  far  removed.  As  heaven  was  above,  and  the  souls  of  the 
righteous  were  said  to  ascend  to  heaven,  so  the  damned  descended — 
went  down  into  hell. 

"The  rich  man,  tormented  in  hell,  'lifted  up  his  eyes'  and  saw 
Lazarus  in  Abraham's  bosom,  and  to  his  entreaties  for  succor  and  inter 
cession,  Abraham  had  replied,  '  between  us  and  you  there  is  a  great  gulf 
fixed.'  So,  too,  Christ,  in  the  parable  of  the  marriage  feast,  said, 
'  Take  him  and  bind  him  hand  and  foot,  and  cast  him  into  outer 
darkness.' 

"  He  cited  many  other  texts  from  Scripture  to  fix  this  locality,  and 
deduced,  as  a  conclusion  therefrom,  that  hell  must  necessarily  be  in  the 


312  DOCTRINES   OF   SPIRITUALISTS. 

contrc  of  this  earth,  as  in  no  other  way  could  our  conceptions  of  itfl 
position  beneath  us,  as  defined  in  the  Scriptures,  be  adequately  realized  j 
our  ideas  of  what  is  above  us  might  be  infinite  as  space  itself,  but  there 
could  be  but  one  '  beneath,'  and  that  was  subterranean. 

"  He  then  inquired  into  the  degree  of  intensity  of  this  heat,  which 
almost  passed  the  bounds  of  human  conception.  As  a  means  of  approx- 
imating to  a  result,  however,  he  referred  to  experiments  which  had  been 
made  with  a  thermometer  in  Artesian  wells  and  deep  mines.  Here  it 
had  been  observed  that  with  every  fifty  feet  of  depth  one  degree  of 
Fahrenheit  had  been  gained ;  consequently,  at  this  ratio  of  increase,  it 
would  only  be  necessary  to  penetrate  the  crust  of  the  earth  twenty-one 
miles,  in  order  to  reach  a  state  of  heat,  in  which  the  granite  would  be 
molten.  Water  boils  at  two  hundred  and  twelve  degrees  Fahrenheit, 
but  it  requires  two  thousand  and  six  hundred  degrees  to  melt  rocks 
This,  therefore,  was  the  minimum  of  the  heat  of  hell,  whose  frontiers 
therefore,  lie  twenty-one  miles  below  the  surface  of  the  earth. 

"  What  would  be  the  duration  of  the  punishment  and  of  these  terri 
ble  fires  ?  Here  there  was  no  room  left  for  doubt !  The  Church,  ic 
concurrence  with  the  awful  testimony  of  the  Scriptures,  had  pronounced 
them  eternal;  Christ  himself  had  said,  'It  is  better  for  thee  to  enter 
life  maimed  than,  having  two  hands,  to  go  into  hell,  into  the  fire  that 
shall  never  be  quenched.'  It  would  be  vain  to  attempt  to  conceive  the 
duration  of  that  eternity;  the  boldest  intellects  shrank  appalled  on  the 
very  threshold  of  their  inquiry.  To  illustrate  the  futility  of  any  such 
attempt,  he  begged  his  hearers  to  picture  to  themselves  one  of  those 
infinitely  small  animals,  of  which  millions  dwell  in  a  single  drop  of 
water,  and  which  only  the  most  powerful  microscope  can  reveal  to  our 
gaze. 

"  Let  them  suppose  one  of  these  infinitesimal  creatures  to  consume  the 
whole  earth,  to  eat  all  the  leaves  of  the  trees,  the  fruits  of  the  ground, 
and  sand  of  the  seashore,  the  mountains  and  the  plains,  to  drink  up  the 
oceans,  lakes  and  rivers,  taking  one  mouthful  in  a  thousand  years,  and 
then  to  devour  in  turn  the  sun  and  the  planets  and  all  the  visible  creatures 
of  the  universe,  and,  after  the  incalculable  lapse  of  time,  consider  how 
much  nearer  they  would  be  to  the  solution  of  this  great  mystery  ?  Not 
one  step;  eternity  would  be  as  far  beyond  their  contemplation  as  ever. 

"  In  these  eternal  fires  every  limb  and  member  of  our  bodies,  every 
nerve  and  muscle  and  tendon,  every  part  of  us,  in  fire,  over  which  the 
sense  of  feeling  predominated,  would  be  forever  racked  and  tortured 
and  yet  never  consumed.  And  to  these  exquisite  torments  of  the  body 
would  be  added  the  pangs  of  remorse  and  stings  of  conscience." 

This  is  locating  and  preaching  hell  to  some  purpose.  It  is 
admirable  !  Such  square  sermonizing  is  in  no  way  allied  to 
this  delectable,  dodging  indefiniteness  that  characterizes  the 
evangelical  discourses  of  the  present.  Perhaps  the  mitiga- 
tion, softening  and  bridging  over  of  that  liquid  stream  of  fire^ 


EXEGETICAL    SPIRITUALISM  —  HELL.  ^18 

form  no  exception  to  the  general  improvement  of  the  age. 
These  Orthodox  clergy — "  fat,  oily  men,  with  a  roguish 
twinkle  in  their  eyes" — if  believing  their  creeds,  certainly 
take  the  matter  of  endless  hell  torments  very  easy.  They 
smile,  enjoy  good  digestion,  walk  daily  over  this  '*  twenty- 
one  miles"  crust  of  hell,  crack  jokes,  drive  good  bargains, 
loan  money,  and  do  other  things  quite  human. 

The  old  is  passing  away.  It  is  effete,  barren,  dead  !  Art, 
science,  commerce,  poetry,  painting,  music,  telegraphic  com- 
munications, in  connection  with  the  phenomena  and  philos- 
ophy of  Spiritualism,  have  all  exerted  their  liberalizing 
tendencies  upon  the  theologies  of  the  times. 

Spiritualists,  though  utterly  rejecting  the  commonly  received 
orthodox  doctrines  of  hell,  as  a  place  of  future  endless  pun- 
ishment, firmly  believe  in  hell — believe  in  good  and  evil, 
heaven  and  hell,  as  subjective  relations  and  conditions. 

There  are  four  words  in  the  Old  and  Isew  Testaments 
translated  hell :  Sheol,  Hades,  Tartarus  and  Gehenna.  The 
first  two — the  former  Hebrew,  and  the  latter,  Greek — are 
synonymous.  It  is  difficult  to  find  English  words  that 
precisely  correspond  with  them. 

The  Orthodox  commentator.  Dr.  Campbell,  writes  thus  of 
Hades : 

"  In  my  judgment,  it  ought  never  in  the  Scriptures  to  be  rendered 
hell,  at  least  in  the  sense  wherein  that  word  is  now  universally  under- 
stood by  Christians.  In  the  Old  Testament  the  corresponding  word  is 
Sheol,  which  signifies  the  state  of  the  dead  in  general,  without  regard 
to  the  goodness  or  badness  of  the  persons,  their  happiness  or  misery." 

Dr.  Chapman,  in  his  *'  Critical  iSTotes,"  assures  us  that — 

"Neither  Sheol  nor  Hades,  in  themselves  considered,  have  any  con- 
nection with  future  punishment,  as  will  be  evident  to  any  man  who  will 
examine  the  Hebrew  Bible  and  the  Septuagint  translation." 

The  late  Professor  Stuart  left  recorded  these  words : 

"  There  can  be  no  reasonable  doubt  that  Sheol  does  most  generally 
mean  the  grave,  sepulchre,  the  world  of  the  dead,  in  the  Old  Testament 
scriptures." 


314  DOCTRINES   OF   SPIRITUALISTS. 

Hei'e  are  several  passages  from  the  Old  Testament,  where 
Slieol  — hell — is  rendered  grave.     Gen.  xxxvii. :  35 : 

"  T  will  go  down  into  the  grave  (^Sheol  or  heW)  unto  my  son  mourn- 
ing." "  Oh,  that  thou  wouldst  hide  me  in  the  grave  ^'  {Sheol  or  lidl). 
Hosea  xiii :  14  :  "I  will  ransom  them  from  the  power  of  the  grave;  1 
will  redeem  them  from  death;  0  death,  I  will  be  thy  plagues;  0 
grave  (^Sheol  or  heir)  I  will  BE  THY  destruction." 

These  passages  show  that  Jacob  expected  to  go  to  Sheol — 
hell — to  meet  his  son,  and  that  Job  actually  prayed  to  be  hid 
in  hell. 

Sheol  is  found  in  the  Old  Testament  sixty-four  times.  It 
is  translated  three  times  'pit^  twenty-nine  times  grave,  thirty- 
two  times  hell.  Hades  occurs  eleven  times  in  the  !N^ew  Tes- 
tament, translated  once  grave,  ten  times  hell.  The  learned 
Parkhurst  says : 

'•  Our  English,  or  rather  Saxon  word  hell^  in  its  original  signification, 
exactly  answers  to  the  Greek  word  Hades,  and  denotes  a  concealed  or 
unseen  place  ;  and  this  sense  of  the  word  is  still  retained  in  the  eastern, 
and  especially  in  the  western  counties  of  England.  To  hele  over  a  thing 
is  to  cover  it." 

Mr.  Sabine  says : 

"  It  appears  to  me  that  in  the  time  of  this  translation,  hell,  pit  and 
grave,  were  synonymous." 

Tartarus,  frequently  used  by  the  Grecian  poets,  is  described 
in  Ihe  Iliad  as  a  place  far  below  Hades.  It  occurs  in  the  Bible 
but  once,  and  is  used  in  the  participle  form — Tarlarosas.  It 
literally  implies  a  portion  of  Hades — hidden  regions. 

There  is  but  one  opinion  among  the  erudite  concerning 
Gehenna,  found  twelve  times  in  the  Bible.  Dr.  Campbell 
says : 

"  It  is  originally  a  compound  of  two  Hebrew  words,  ge  hinnom,  the 
valley  of  Hinnom,  a  place  near  Jerusalem,  of  which  we  hear  first  in  the 
book  of  .loshua,  xv :  8 

Rosenmuller  says :  • 

"  Grehenna  is  a  Hebrew  word,  denoting  a  place  near  Jerusalem.*' 


EXEaETICAL   SPIRITUALISM  —  HELL.  3i  . 

Clark  sajs,  respecting  the  passage  of  Matt,  v :  23 : 

"Our  Lord  here  alludes  to  the  valley  of  the  son  of  Ilinnom.  This 
place  was  near  Jerusalem,"  etc. 

These  Orthodox  scholars  were  correct  is  saying  Gehenna — 
hell — was  a  place  near  Jerusalem,  and  not  in  the  "  centre  of 
the  earth,"  nor  the  future  immortal  world.  The  Koman 
Catholics,  seemingly  more  honest,  and  certainly  more  pro- 
found in  research  than  Protestants,  translate  Shoel  and  Hades 
candidly  in  giving  to  the  English  word  hell  its  original  and 
proper  meaning,  viz :  secret,  covered — the  state  of  the  dead 
without  reference  to  their  condition.  In  the  Douay  Bible, 
first  published  in  Douay  in  1609,  among  others  we  find  this 
text  and  sensible  note  thereon : 

"  1  Sam.  ii :  6  :  '  The  Lord  bringeth  down  to  hell  (sheol)  and  bringeth 
back  again/  Job  xiv :  13  :  '  That  thou  mayest  protect  me  in  hell  (sheol) 
and  hide  me  till  thy  wrath  pass."  Note. — '  Protect  me  in  hell,  that  is, 
in  the  state  of  the  dead,  and  in  the  place  where  the  souls  are  kept 
waiting  for  their  Redeemer.' " 

Rev.  B.  H.  Wilson,  in  an  essay  relating  to  the  "iN'ational 
English  Church,"  alluding  to  the  Limbus  Infantum  of  the 
Catholic  Church,  says : 

"  There  may  be  mansions  hereafter  for  those  who  are  infants  in  spir- 
itual development — nurseries ;  or  seed  grounds,  where  the  undeveloped 
may  grow  up  under  new  conditions,  the  stunted  become  strong,  and  the 
perverted  restored." 

Liberal  sentiments  of  this  character  indicate  the  benev- 
olence of  the  heart  and  the  rapidity  of  religious  progress. 
That  judicious  author  of  the  '' Serious  Call,''  Wm.  Law,  in 
one  of  his  best  inspirational  moments,  writes : 

•'  No  hell  in  any  remote  place  ;  no  devil  that  is  separate  from  you ;  no 
darkness  or  pain  that  is  not  within  you;  no  anti-Christ,  either  at  Rome 
3r  England;  no  furioas  beast;  no  fiery  dragon,  without  or  apart  from 
yourself,  can  do  you  any  hurt.  It  is  your  own  hell,  your  own  devil 
your  own  beast,  your  own  anti-Christ,  your  own  dragon  that  lives  in 
your  own  heart's  blood,  that  alone  can  hurt  you." 


316  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

Heaven  is  harmony;  hell  is  discord.  Heaven  is  love  and 
purity;  hell  is  hate.  "The  kingdom  of  heaven  is  within 
yon,"  said  the  Galilean  teacher.  If  heaven  is  within  the 
good  and  pore,  hell  is  within  the  mipure  and  depraved.  It 
implies  sorrow,  darkness,  trouble,  regret  and  remorse.  The 
Psalmist,  David,  because  of  trawsgressions,  was  forced  to 
exclaim — "  I  found  sorrow  and  trouble ;  the  pains  of  hell  got 
hold  of  me."  This  is  the  experience  of  all  wrong-doers. 
The  universe  is  vocal  with  warnings.  In  the  sense  of  an 
escape  from  just  punishment,  there  is  no  forgiveness.  Com- 
pensation is  certain.  The  "uttermost  farthing "  must  be 
paid.  As  reaping  to  sowing,  so  is  misery  to  vice,  or  happi- 
ness  to  virtue.  They  are  as  indissolubly  connected  as  the 
pillars  that  support  the  universe. 

The  comparative  darkness  attending  certain  spirits  for  a 
long  period  in  the  land  of  souls,  is  only  the  reflex  action 
of  their  own  spiritual  states.  They  generate  the  mist  that 
dims  their  vision.  Life  is  one  lengthened  chain.  Voluntary 
acts  are  the  links.  As  to-day  is  related  to  to-morrow,  and 
as  the  conduct  of  youth  affects  manhood ;  so  this  life's 
thoughts,  purposes,  deeds,  determine  the  immediate  condi- 
tion and  position  of  those  entering  the  immortal  world.  ]No 
death-miracle  transforms  sordid,  scheming,  wicked  men  in 
the  "  twinkling  of  an  eye "  to  angels.  True  growth  is  a 
stranger  to  abrupt  leaps.  All  progress  is  gradual.  Tne 
malicious  and  depraved  of  this,  carrying  their  hells  with 
them,  enter  the  hells  or  lower  spheres  of  the  spirit-life. 
They  are  in  prisons  of  moral  darkness.  They  lived  base, 
and  selfish  lives.  T'heir  affections  centered  upon  earth  and 
earthly  things,  and  by  an  inexorable  law  of  their  being  they 
are  mentally  and  psychologically  imprisoned  for  a  time  near 
the  surface  of  this  planet.  As  fish  to  water,  bird  to  air,  so 
the  earthly-minded  to  the  grosser  strata  and  aural  circles 
belting  the  earth,  till  through  aspiration,  unfoldment,  and 
refinement,  they  become  prepared  to  traverse  the  starry 
spaces  of  the  higher  heavens. 


EXEQETICAL    SPIRITUALISM  —  HELL.  317 

The  N'ew  Testament  scriptures  inform  us  that  Jesus,  after 
being  put  to  "  death  in  the  flesh,  but  quickened  by  the  spirit, 
preached  to  the  spirits  in  prison."  Peter  further  speaks  of 
the  '*  gospel  being  preached  to  them  that  are  dead.''  The 
fact  of  such  preaching  implies  a  moral  benefit  derived 
therefrom.  The  divine,  uplifting  law  of  progress  spans  all 
souls,  all  worlds.  Jesus  and  angels,  prophets,  martyrs  and 
the  sainted  of  all  ages,  delight  in  descending  to  teach  in  the 
darker  spheres  of  ignorance,  as  reformers  of  earth  find 
supreme  joy  in  rescuing  and  redeeming  the  erring. 

*'I  can  but  trust  that  good  shall  fall 
At  last — -far  off — at  last  to  all, 
And  eyery  winter  change  to  spring.** 

"  Not  one  life  shall  be  destroyed. 


Or  cast  as  rubbish  to  the  void, 

When  God  hath  made  the  pile  eomplets,' 


ChAPTEF^^   XXX  ^Z"!. 


HEAVEN. 


**  I  saw  a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth.  *  *  *  He  that  oyercometh  ehall 
inherit  all  things." 

**  Sweet  land  I  I  have  dreamed  of  thee." 

"There,  all  being  is  eternal;  things  that  cease  have  ceased  to  be ; 
All  corruption  there  has  perished,  there  they  flourish,  strong  and  free ; 
This  mortality  is  swallowed  up  of  life  eternally." 

Brimming  with  hallowed  associations  is  the  delightful 
thought  of  Heaven.  All  have  friends  there  whose  memories 
are  sacred.  Trustingly  they  await  our  arrival  for  holy 
re-union. 

"Paradise,"  writes  Dr.  Hales,  "  is  the  region  appropriated 
to  good  souls." 

Some  of  the  Church  Fathers  considered  paradise  one 
division  of  the  under-world ;  others  thought  it  high  in  the 
atmosphere,  hut  helow  the  dwelling-place  of  God.  Christians 
generally  consider  it  a  located  place — a  city  celestial,  in 
distant,  undefined  regions.  All  fail  to  discern  the  obvious 
difference  between  paradise  and  heaven.  "  To  him  that 
overcometh,"  declared  the  ascended  Jesus  to  the  medium 
St.  John,  "  I  will  give  to  eat  of  the  tree  of  life  that  g-roweth 
in  the  midst  of  the  paradise  of  God." 

The  terms  paradise,  heaven,  spirit-world,  spiritual  world,  spirit- 
land,  summer-land,  ^c,  used  interchangeably,  constitute,  liter- 
ally, a  "confusion  of  tongues."     Unlike  in  the  original,  and 

318 


EXEGETICAL    SPIRITUALISM  —  HEAVEN.  319 

having  different  shades  of  meaning,  they  should  be  employed 
with  the  nicest  discrimination.  Angry  discussions  would 
often  be  avoided,  if  words  and  terms  symbolizing  ideas, 
were  rightly  understood  and  applied. 

Spirit-world,  in  the  best  acceptation  of  the  phrase,  signifies, 
all  space.  Each  individual  is  in  the  spirit  world  now,  though 
encoffined  in  a  mortal  body.  Vast  multitudes  people  the 
world  of  unfleshed  spirits,  who  are  not  in  the  spiritual  world. 
Those  only  are  in  the  spiritual  world,  who,  through  discipline 
and  progress,  have  outgrown  the  depressing  conditions  of 
organization  with  all  earthly  passions  and  tendencies.  The 
liarmonial  and  blissful  graduate  from  the  spiritual  world  into 
the  celestial  heavens.  Here  dwell  the  pure  and  holy.  Clothed 
in  white,  and  wearing  golden  girdles,  they  rush  with  the 
melodies  of  star-orbits  to  other  planets  and  systems,  the 
teachers  of  love  and  holiness. 

The  spirit,  or  summer- land,  is  real  and  substantial — more 
substantial  to  spirits  than  this  earth  to  mortals.  It  is  beau- 
tifully described  by  A.  J.  Davis,  in  his  "  Stellar  Key."  The 
spiritual  is  the  real.  As  John,  entranced  on  Patmos,  saw 
throngs  of  "angels,"  "harpers,"  "thrones,"  "rainbows," 
"  crowns,"  "  lamps  of  fire,"  "  seas  of  glass,"  "  chariots," 
"  vials  of  odors,"  "golden  harps,"  "trumpets" — as  Stephen 
and  Paul  "  looked  up  into  heaven,"  beholding  "  spirits  and 
angels,"  and  hearing  "  unspeakable  words;  "  so  the  entranced 
and  clairvoyant  of  this  age  behold  delightful  fields,  landscapes, 
gardens,  flowers,  fruits,  rivers,  lakes,  fountains,  vast  assem- 
blages of  spirits,  musical  bands,  lyceum  gatherings,  sportive 
children,  schools  of  design,  art  galleries,  magnificent  man- 
sions, and  architectural  abodes  of  beauty,  where  loving  hearts 
beat  and  throb  as  one. 

All  spirits  were  once  mortals.  All  angels  were  once  spirits. 
The  child,  the  man,  the  spirit,  the  angel,  the  arch-angel,  is  the 
divine  order,  corresponding  with  the  musical  ecale  of  the 
overarching  spirit  spheres.  Those  in  the  celestial  heavens 
are  termed  angels,  because  they  have  advanced  beyond  the 
taints  and  selfish  loves  of  their  mortal  existence. 


320  DOCTRINES    OF   SPIRITUALISTS. 

It  is  difficult  to  entirely  disconnect  heaven  from  surround- 
ing, substantial  scenery.  It  is  self-evident  that  whatever 
exists  in  the  realms  of  the  relative,  must  exist  somewhere. 
All  substance  has  form.  If  there  are  organized  spiritual 
beings — spirits — there  must  be  extent  and  limit,  bearing 
upon  them  relationally,  and  whatever  is  in  extent,  must  be 
in  space,  and  have  some  kind  of  location.  Nature  knows  no 
vacuum.  If  there  is  anything  not  in  space,  it  can  have 
neither  form  nor  figure,  for  figure  is  defined  by  logicians  to 
be  "  the  limit  of  extent;  "  and  the  human  mind  cannot  con- 
ceive of  form  without  limit,  of  limit  without  extent,  or  extent 
without  space. 

Spiritual  beings,  then,  have  location,  and,  in  a  subordinate 
sense,  heaven  may  be  connected  with  locality ;  that  is,  there 
must  be  a  harmony  between  the  objective  and  subjective — a 
correspondence,  or  divine  adaptation  between  spheral  strata, 
scenery,  surroundings,  and  those  heavenly  societies. 

Exalted  spirits  often  speak  of  their  beautiful  homes,  where 
life  is  love, —  and  love  is  law ;  of  music,  and  fountains  casting 
Iheir  silvery  spray ;  of  ever-green  gardens,  isles  of  entrancing 
loveliness,  flowing  streams  with  jeweled  banks,  harmonial 
congresses  of  angels  and  heavenly  universities  of  wisdom. 

When  passive  and  prayerful,  our  spirit-guide  descending 
and  describing  to  us,  in  voice  lute-like  and  loving,  the  mag- 
nificence of  his  celestia]  residence,  ever  closes  in  these  thril- 
lingly  searching  words — *'  All  these  shall  be  thine,  child,  when 
thou  art  worthy.''  "  To  him  that  overcomeih  is  the  promise  of  i^ie 
i  lessed  inheritance." 

«*  Is  this  the  way,  sweet  angel  ?     'Tis,  my  child  1 
Thou  must  pass  through  the  tangled,  dreary  wild. 
If  thou  wouldst  reach  the  city  undefiled, — 
Thy  peaceful  home  above. 

Angel,  I'm  weary  1     Child,  then  lean  thy  head 
Upon  my  breast ;  it  was  my  love  that  spread 
•  Thy  rugged  path  ;  hope  on,  till  I  have  said, 

*  Rest,  rest  for  aye,  above  I  *  " 


EXEGETICAL    SPIRITUALISM  —  HEAVEN.  321 

"  111  my  Father's  House,"  said  Jesus,  '*  are  many  mansions. 
r  go  to  prepare  a  place  for  you." 

Poets,  in  tlieir  sacred  lyrics,  frequently  sing  of  heaven  as  a 
place. 

"There  is  a  land  of  pure  delight, 
Where  saints  immortal  reign." 
****** 

"Mortals!  we  travel  through  a  darksome  cave; 
But  still,  as  nearer  to  the  light  we  draw, 
Fresh  gales  will  meet  us  from  the  upper  air, 
And  wholesome  dews  of  heaven  our  foreheads  lave." 

"Up  above,  the  host  no  man  can  number, 
In  white  robes,  a  palm  in  every  hand, 
Each  some  work  sublime  forever  working 
In  the  spacious  tracts  of  that  great  lend." 

Cultured  and  spiritually  enlightened,  the  more  advanced 
consider  heaven  not  so  much  a  world  in  the  starry  firmament 
as  the  interior  state  of  the  soul.  If  this  is  in  conscious  com- 
munion with  God,  if  at  peace  with  itself,  and  moving  onward 
through  the  everlasting  sweep  of  being  in  harmony  with  the 
unalterable  laws  of  the  Infinite,  it  is  in  the  constant  enjoyment 
of  heaven. 

The  primal  purpose  of  the  spiritual  dispensation,  with  its 
ministering  angels,  is  the  building  up  of  the  Republic  of  God 
on  earth ;  and  while  its  continued  prayer  is  "  Thy  republic 
come,"  it  seeks  to  establish  the  truth  of  universal  laws,  the 
fruit  of  good  works,  the  purity  of  undefiled  consciences,  the 
sweet  experience  of  sympathy,  charity  and  forgiveness,  the 
innocency  of  little  children,  and  humility  of  sincere  souls, 
consecrated  to  the  good  of  humanity. 

Heaven,  remember,  is  a  condition  of  self-balance,  harmony 
and  happiness,  and  is  attained  in  all  worlds  through  aspi- 
ration and  obedience  to  divine  laws.  The  spirit  land  consti- 
tuted of  the  particles,  emanations  and  etherealized  essences 
from  this  and  other  earths  in  the  universe — all  bathed  in  the 
sunlight  of  an  eternal  morning — is  no  shadow-realm  ;  but  real 
and  permanent — a  "  city  that  hath  foundation^  whose  builder 
21 


322  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

and  maker  is  God."  Its  inhabitants  are  earnest  and  untiring 
in  their  activities.  Apostles,  martyrs,  reformers,  continue 
their  holy  missions.  Newton  pursues  his  investigations. 
Fulton's  inventive  genius  finds  broader  scope  for  action. 
Mozart  sweeps  golden  harp-strings,  toning  to  harmony  the 
discords  of  the  spheres.  Philosophers  pursue  their  studies. 
Gardeners  continue  their  pleasing  vocations.  Geologists 
probe  newly-formed  earths,  and  astronomers  become  enthu- 
siastic in  measuring  the  mighty  orbs  of  space.  Spirit  life, 
then,  is  an  active  life,  a  social  life,  a  retributive  life,  a  con- 
structive life,  a  progressive  life.  Reason,  affection,  con- 
science and  memory,  go  with  us  into  that  world  of  conscious 
souls.     Individualities  are  eternalities. 

A  change  of  clothing,  or  a  change  of  place,  does  not 
change  character.  Entrance  into  the  future  world  of  spirits, 
will  no  more  affect  the  moral  tendencies  of  the  soul,  or 
miraculously  give  it  new  directions,  desires  and  aims,  than  a 
voyage  across  the  Pacific  to  California,  would  transform  a 
thief  into  a  saint.  All  grow  to  be  angels  by  degrees.  The 
process  of  death,  with  the  improved  surroundings  and  condi- 
tions incident  thereto,  will  better  each  and  all  only  in  the 
sense  of  helping  them  to  more  clearly  see  the  true  relation 
of  things. 

In  an  inspirational  discourse,  IT.  W,  Beecher  said — 

"  We  shall  enter  upon  another  life  divested  of  many  of  Ihe  hindrances 
and  incumbrances  of  this.         *         *         *         * 

"  If  you  take  a  seed  that  has  ripened  in  Nova  Zembia,  and  bring  it 
into  the  tropics,  and  plant  it,  it  will  not  be  what  it  would  have  been  in 
Nova  Zembia,  with  a  short  growing  season,  and  the  scantiest  supply  of 
food.  It  will  have,  with  a  long  summer,  and  an  abundant  supply,  a 
growth  to  which  no  one  would  suspect  that  it  could  attain,  who  had 
only  seen  it  grow  in  the  frigid  zones.  Many  things  that  are  shrubs  in 
the  frigid  zones,  are  high,  waving  century  oaks  in  the  tropics.  And  so 
men  in  this  life  are  in  conditions  which,  though  fitted  to  develop  the 
earlier  stages  of  human  growth,  are  not  fitted  to  develop  the  full  estate 
of  that  idea  which  God  has  expressed  in  the  creation  of  man.  And  we 
may  hope  that  when  we  bid  adieu  to  our  mortal  life,  we  shall  leave 
behind  some  things  which  are  necessary  to  the  exigencies  of  our  condi- 
tion here,  but  which  will  not  be  necessary  to  our  state  there.  Our 
imagination,  our  reason^  our  afi'ections,  and  our  moral  sentiments,  we 


EXEGETICAL    SPIRITUALISM  —  HEAVEN.  323 

shall  doubtless  carry  with  us;  but  the  conditions  of  our  life  will  be  so 
different  that  we  shall  be  like  men  taken  from  poverty  into  abundance ; 
from  winter  into  summer;  from  a  cold  climate  and  a  frozen  soil,  into 
Si  soil  never  locked  by  ice,  and  skies  that  never  know  frost.  Our  life 
there  shall  be  ampler,  fuller,  nobler  than  it  is  here." 

A  man  cannot  become  scientific  and  holy  as  a  garment  is 
cleansed  by  washing.  Volition  and  effort  are  involved  in 
moral  purity.  Salvation  is  the  result  of  soul-growth,  not 
physical  chemistry. 

When  a  drowning  mortal  heavily  encumbered  with  thick 
garments,  succeeds  in  throwing  them  off,  he  is  not  saved,  nor 
do  his  tremulous  feet  press  the  shore;  but  he  is  in  a  far  better 
condition  for  reaching  it.  So  the  circumstance  termed  death, 
*'  one  step  up  higher,"  puts  all  the  conscious  humanity  of 
God  into  better  conditions  to  attain  knowledge,  wisdom, 
purity,  heaven.  Salvation  then  is  not  mechanical,  chemical 
nor  catacly^smic ;  but  a  gradual  interior  unfoldment — a  coming 
into  harmony  with  divine  law — a  blissful  sequence  achieved 
through  the  exercise  of  the  will,  wisdom  and  love  of  a  mora! 
actor. 

There  is  no  such  law  in  the  universe  as  absolute  retrogra- 
dation.  Spirit  is  never  less  than  essential  spirit.  Downward 
tendencies  are  more  in  seeming  than  the  real.  The  prodigal 
son  departing  for  that  *' far-off  country,"  was  spiritually 
approaching  the  Father.  He  required  the  terrible  experi- 
ence. Arresting  him  in  his  course,  the  punishment  was 
disciplinary.  It  brought  him  to  himself.  It  helped  the 
Christ  triumph  over  the  Adam. 

The  primary  meaning  of  the  Greek  word,  Kolasis — punish- 
ment— is  pruning  or  trimming,  as  of  a  tree ;  severing  diseased 
limbs,  and  cutting  away  distorted  branches  to  restore  it  to  a 
healthy  condition  and  symmetry  of  form. 

The  growth  of  plants  is  intensified  and  hastened  by  rich 
soil,  clear  light  and  an  increased  supply  of  electricity.  All 
this  maybe  done  in  harmony  with  natural  law.  Such  stimu- 
lants are  adapted  to  the  structure  of  the  plants.     So  the 


824  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

influences,  incentives,  spiritual  light  and  presence  of  angel 
guides  extending  their  shining  hands,  will  exert  a  mighty 
moral  influence  in  turning  spirits,  disenthralled  from  their 
fleshly  bodies,  towards  the  more  pure  and  heavenly  altitudes 
of  perfection. 

•'God  is  a  worker.     He  has  thickly  strewn 
Infinity  with  grandeur.     God  is  love. 
He  yet  shall  wipe  away  Creation's  tears, 
And  all  the  worlds  shall  summer  in  his  smile." 

♦'  One  God,  one  law,  one  element, 

And  one  far-off,  divine  event, 
To  which  the  whole  creation  moves." 

"^Thus  heavenward  all  things  tend.  For  all  were  once  perfect,  and 
all  must  be  at  length  restored.'' 

"  Each  is  born  for  a  higher  destiny  than  that  of  earth ;  there  is  a 
realm  where  rainbows  never  fade ;  where  the  stars  will  be  out  before 
us  Hke  islets  that  slumber  on  the  ocean ;  and  where  the  loved  beings 
that  pass  before  us  like  shadows,  now  will  stay  in  our  presence  forever  I " 


LhAPTEI^^    XXXVII, 


HISTORIC    IMMORTALITY 


"Deep  love,  the  god  like  in  us,  still  belierei 
Its  objects  are  immortal  as  itself." 

"  The  form  is  in  the  archetype  before  it  appears  in  the  work;  in  tha  divine 
mind  before  it  exists  in  the  creature." 

The  immortality  of  the  soul  is  a  doctrine  ancient  as  the 
remotest  records.  Jesus  may  have  brought  it  to  *'  light,"  in 
the  estimation  of  Paul  —  originally  Saul  of  Tarsus,  then  a 
bigoted  self-willed  Jew,  wedded  to  the  dim  twilight  shadows 
of  the  Old  Testament  dogmas.  But  Paul  should  not  have 
presumed  upon  weighing  other  men's,  and  other  nations' 
knowledge  of  "  life  and  immortality"  in  his  personal  scales 
of  ignorance.  India's  Vedas,  Egypt's  Hieroglyphs,  and 
Assyria's  scrolls,  as  well  as  the  philosophies  of  Greece,  were 
all  aflame  with  the  golden  light  of  "  life  and  immortality," 
thousands  of  years  before  the  arrest  and  crucifixion  of  Jesus. 

Doubtless  the  oldest  distinctive  statements  of  man's 
knowledge  of  a  future  existence  are  found  in  Egypt's  sacred 
*'  Book  of  the  Dead.''  These  books  treat  upon  the  divine 
attributes  of  the  Deity  and  the  destinies  of  human  souls 
after  death,  who,  passing  the  gates  of  darkness,  were 
introduced  into  Amentlie,  place  of  departed  spirits,  to  be 
judged.  After  this  trial,  they  ascended,  or  descended  to 
higher  or  lower  spheres,  accordmg  to  the  "  deeds  done  in  the 
body." 

325 


326  DOCTRINES    OF   SPIRITUALISTS. 

Those  sublime,  old  Iliudoo  Hymns,  the  Vedas,  ricnly 
abound  in  the  doctrines  of  *'  life  and  immortality." 

"  The  wise  man,  to  whom  pain  and  pleasure  are  the  same,  is  formed 
for  immortahtj.  *  *  *  Xhe  spirit  is  not  a  thing  of  which  a  man 
may  say,  it  hath  been,  it  is  about  to  be,  or  is  to  be  hereafter ;  for  it  is 
without  birth,  ancient,  constant  and  eternal,  and  is  not  to  be  destroyed 
in  this  its  mortal  frame.  As  a  man  throweth  away  old  garments  and 
putteth  on  new,  even  so  the  soul,  having  quitted  its  old  mortal  frames, 
entereth  into  others  which  are  new." — Bhagavat  Geeta. 

"  May  I  arrive  at  that  abode  of  Vishnu  (God)  where  dwell  in  bliss  the 
men  who  have  been  devoted  to  Him.  He  who  has  honored  Vishnu  with 
libations,  becomes  his  friend  in  the  world  above."  "  Go,  give  to  the 
waters  and  to  the  plants  thy  body  which  belongs  to  them  :  but  there  is 
an  immortal  portion;  0  Djatavedas,  transport  it  to  the  world  of  the 
holy." — Eig  Veda. 

"  Generation  is  not  a  creation  of  life,  but  a  production  of  things  to 
sense  and  making  them  manifest.  Neither  is  change  death,  but  a 
hiding  of  that  which  was." — Hermes  Trismegistus. 

"  He  who  speaks  wisely,  moderately,  kindly  goes  (after  death)  to 
those  worlds  which  are  the  inexhaustible  sources  of  happiness.  He  who 
is  intelligent,  modest,  devout,  who  reverences  wisdom,  and  respects  his 
superiors  and  the  aged,  goes  to  the  highest  heaven.  Sinless  among 
the  sinful,  speaking  friendly  words  to  all  men,  his  whole  soul  melting 
with  benevolence,  final  happiness  is  within  his  grasp."  —  Vishnu 
Parana. 

"  There  is  another  invisible,  eternal  existence  superior  to  this  visible 
one,  which  does  not  perish  when  all  things  perish.  Those  who  attain 
this  never  return.     This  is  my  supreme  abode." — Bhagavat   Geeta. 

"  The  soul  is  immortal ;  again,  it  is  incorruptible,  it  never  dieth.     * 
*     *     But  when  a  man  who  has  lived  justly  dieth,  his  soul  ascend- 

eth  to  the  pure  heaven,  and  lives  in  the  happy  oevum  with  the  blessed." 

— Pythagoras. 

One  of  this  Grecian's  golden  verses  is  this : 

•'  When  thou  shall  have  laid  aside  thy  body, 

Thou  shall  rise  freed  from  mortality, 

And  become  a  god  (angel)  of  the  kindly  skies." 

"  Dying,  *  *  *  she  shall  be  welcomed  by  her  father,  her 
mother,  and  her  brother  in  that  other  world." — Sophocles. 

"  An  honorable  and  virtuous  man,  may  rest  assured  as  to  his  future 
fate.  The  souls  of  the  lawless  departing  this  life  suffer  punishment. 
But  the  good  lead  a  life  without  a  tear,  among  those  honored  by  the 
gods  f  ^r  having  always  delighted  in  virtue." — F'mdar." 


EXEGETICAL  SPIRITUALISM — HISTORIC  IMMORTALITY.       327 

"  As  they  who  run  a  race  are  not  crowned  till  they  have  conquered, 
80  good  men  believe  that  the  reward  of  virtue  is  not  given  till  after 
death.  *  *  *  *  Not  by  lamentations  and  mournful  chanta 
ought  we  to  celebrate  the  funerals  of  the  good,  but  by  hymns ; 
for  in  ceasing  to  be  numbered  with  mortals,  they  enter  upon  the 
heritage  of  a  diviner  life." — Plutarch. 

"  If  my  body  be  overpressed,  it  must  descend  to  the  destined  place  ; 
nevertheless,  my  soul  shall  not  descend,  but,  being  a  thing  immortal, 
shall  fly  up  to  high  befiven" — Hei-acUtus. 

"When,  therefore,  death  approaclies  a  man,  the  mortal  part  of  him 
lies;  but  the  immortal  departs  safe  and  uncorruptible,  having  with 
drawn  itself  from  death.  The  soul,  therefore,  is  most  certainly 
immortal  and  imperishable,  and  our  souls  really  exist  in  the  world  of 
spirits.  Those  who  shall  have  sufficiently  purified  themselves  by 
philosophy  [religion],  shall  live  without  their  bodies  received  into 
more  beautiful  mansions.  *  *  *  *  p^P  ^\^q  g^^j^.^  ^^  these 
things,  we  should  use  every  endeavor  to  acquire  virtue  and  wisdom  in 
this  life ;  for  the  reward  is  noble  and  the  hope  is  great.  A  man 
ought  then  to  have  confidence  about  his  soul,  if  during  this  life  he  has 
made  it  beautiful  with  temperance,  justice,  furtitude,  freedom,  and 
truth;  he  waits  for  his  entrance  into  the  world  of  spirits,  is  one  who  is 
ready  to  depart  when  destiny  calls.  I  shall  not  remain,  I  shall 
depart.  Do  not  say  then  that  Socrates  is  buried ;  say  that  you  bury 
my  hodyJ" — Socrates. 

"  This  was  the  end  of  the  best,  the  wisest,  and  most  just  of  men, — a 
story  which  Cicero  professed  he  never  read  without  tears." — Plato. 

"  The  origin  of  souls  cannot  be  found  upon  earth,  for  there  is 
nothing  earthly  in  them.  They  have  faculties  which  claim  to  be  called 
divine,  and  which  can  never  be  shown  to  have  come  to  man  from  any 
source  but  God.  That  nature  in  us  which  thinks,  which  knows,  which 
lives,  is  celestial,  and  for  that  reason  necessarily  eternal.  God  himself 
can  be  represented  only  as  a  free  Spirit  separate  from  matter,  seeing  all 
things,  and  moving  all  things,  himself  ceaselessly  working.  Of  this 
kind,  from  this  nature,  is  the  human  soul.  *  *  It  cannot  be 
destroyed."  He  represents  the  aged  Cato  as  exclaiming,  "  0  happy 
day  when  I  shall  remove  from  this  crowd  of  mortals,  to  go  and  join  the 
divine  assembly  of  great  souls.  Not  only  shall  I  meet  again  there  the 
men  who  have  lived  godlike  on  earth ;  I  shall  find  again  my  son,  to 
whom  these  aged  hands  have  performed  the  duties  which  in  the  order 
of  nature  he  should  have  rendered  to  me.  His  spirit  has  never  quitted 
me.  He  departed,  turning  his  eyes  upon  me  and  calling  on  me,  for  that 
place  where  he  knew  I  should  soon  come.  If  I  have  borne  his  loss 
with  courage,  it  is  not  that  my  heart  was  unfeeling,  but  I  consoled 
myself  with  the  thought  that  our  separation  would  not  be  long." — 
Cicero 


328  DOCTRINES  OF  SPIRITt  \LISTS. 

These  citations,  taken  as  selected  pebbles  from  an  im- 
measurable ocean  of  evidence,  prove  that  the  doctrine  of 
future,  immortal  existence  is  as  natural  to  the  soul  as  a  heart- 
beat in  its  casement ;  that,  like  sunlight,  it  has  flowed  i  ito 
and  bubbled  from  the  spiritual  affections  of  all  seers  in  all 
ages,  and  become  there  a  prophecy,  yea,  a  positive  knowl- 
edge. Even  the  ruder  tribes  of  earth,  less  favored  with 
the  supports  of  civilization,  instinctively  entertain  this 
truth.  The  poor  Indian  of  America's  wilds,  child  of  fate 
falling  before  the  more  savage  monopoly  of  his  pale  brother, 
is  nature's  diorama  of  immortal  lights  and  shades  from  the 
spirit  hunting-grounds.  When  a  brave  chief  dies,  the  sur- 
vivors, bending  down  a  sapling  pine  till  the  roots  jut  out, 
place  under  it  the  tenantless  form,  letting  the  tree  spring 
back  to  its  original  position,  where,  spiring  up  a  symbol  of 
towering  spirituality,  it  is  nourished  with  the  rich  "  dust  to 
dust"  and  becomes  greener  and  stronger,  rising  higher 
towards  the  wierd  lands  of  the  hereafter. 

Death  strikes  no  class  of  persons  with  such  terror  as  pro- 
fessed Christians.  Their  sighs,  groanings,  moanings  and 
mourning  apparel — black  fitting  their  condition — a  church- 
menagerie  of  sable  show  and  brooding  despair — absolutely 
shock  the  seers  and  sages  of  India,  Greece,  Rome,  the  mil- 
lions of  present  Spiritualists,  and  even  the  ITorth  American 
Indians. 

What  consummate  bigotry,  then,  or  learned  malignity — 
culpable  in  that  they  know  no  better  —  for  clergymen, 
sneering  at  the  manifestations  of  angel  presence,  to  insist,  as 
they  do,  that  the  only  reliable  evidence  of  immortality  is 
revealed  in  the  Bible,  or  "  brought  to  light"  in  the  his- 
toric resurrection  of  Jesus !  Even  the  Hindoo  Menu  can 
teach  them ;  ''  Universal  instinct  is  transcendent  law.'' 
The  human  soul  will  burst  all  fetters,  and,  child-like,  find 
nature  a  perpetual  paradise  of  immortal  fore-gleams,  and 
its  own  inner  springs  of  love  the  future  "  river  of  life" 
flowing  into  the  estuary  of  eternity. 


EXEGETICAL  SPIRITUALISM — HISTORIC  IMMORTA   JTY.       329 

**Upon  the  frontier  of  this  bright  summor-land, 
We,  pilgrims  of  cankering  sorrow,  stand  : — 
What  realm  lies  forward,  with  its  happier  store 

Of  forests  green  and  deep, 

Of  valleys  hushed  in  sleep, 
And  lakes  most  peaceful  I  'Tis  the  land 

Of  evermore." 


Chaptei^^    XXX  vm. 


RESURRECTION. 


**The  grave  itself  is  but  a  covered  bridge, 
Leading  from  light  to  light,  through  a  brief  darkness.** 

♦'  The  eye  that  shuts  in  a  dying  hour 
Will  open  next  in  bliss  ; 
The  welcome  will  sound  in  the  heavenly  world 
Ere  the  farewell  is  hushed  in  this." 

'♦  There  shall  be  no  more  death,  neither  sorrow  nor  crying,  neither  shall 
there  be  any  more  pain  ;  for  the  former  things  are  passed  away." 

Death,  the  shade-side  of  conscious  life,  is  comparable  to  a 
star,  that,  fading  from  telescopic  vision,  sets  to  illumine 
others  in  the  siderial  heavens  ;  to  a  rose  that,  on  a  morning 
in  June,  climbs  up  the  garden  wall  to  bloom  the  other  side. 

The  Greek,  anastasis,  generally  translated  by  the  English 
word,  resurrection,  does  not  necessarily  signify,  that  those  to 
whom  it  refers  should  be  physically  dead.  In  the  scriptures 
and  the  classics,  it  is  often  applied  to  the  living.  Its  best 
definition  implies  a  rising,  an  exaltation,  a  being  lifted  up 
higher  in  regard  to  condition  or  circumstance.  The  learned 
Dr.  Campbell  says  :  "  It  denotes  simply  being  raised  from 
inactivity  to  action,  or  from  obscurity  to  eminence." 
Anisterni,  the  verb  form,  has  a  signification  equally  wide,  as 
used  by  Grecian  writers,  both  before  and  after  the  Christian 
era.  Therefore,  in  the  original,  rising  from  a  seat,  awaken- 
ing out  of  sleep,  or  being  promoted  to  a  higher  condition, 
may  be  legitimately,  termed  an  anastasis — a  resurrection. 

330 


EXEGETICAL    SPIRITUALISM  —  RESURRECTION.  331 

Persians,  Mahommedaiis,  Jews,  and  Christians,  with  ver}' 
few  exceptions,  believe  in  the  Hteral  resurrection  of  these 
physical  bodies — somata — while  the  great  army  of  Spirit- 
ualists, in  constant  converse  with  the  spirit-world,  utterly 
repudiates  the  theory. 

Mineral  matter  to  matter  in  accordance  with  gravitation 
and  adaptation — dust  with  its  primitive  dust — and  spirit 
heavenward  towards  the  perfections  of  Infinite  spirit — is 
the  immutable  law  as  seen  from  the  spiritual  side  of  this 
question. 

In  that  Christian  writer's  work — Dr.  Young's — entitled 
"  The  Last  Bay,"  the  dogma  of  the  resurrection  of  the 
mortal  body  is  carried  to  the  ultimate  Augustine,  hard 
pressed  upon  the  point,  of  cannibalism,  said,  '*  The  flesh 
shall  be  restored  to  the  man  in  whom  it  first  became 
human  flesh,  regardless  of  the  changes  it  may  have  passed 
through;  for  it  is  to  be  considered  as  borrowed,  and,  like 
borrowed  money,  must  be  returned  to  the  one  from  whom 
it  was  taken." 

Among  the  most  important  words  of  the  Episcopal 
creed,  are  these:  "I  believe  in  *  *  *  the  resurrec- 
tion of  the  body  and  the  life  everlasting." 

Brigham  Young,  the  Mormon  leader,  preaching  the 
funeral  discourse  of  elder  Heber   C.  Kimball,   said  ; 

"  He  has  fallen  asleep  for  a  certain  purpose,  to  be  prepared  for  a 
glorious  resurrection  ;  and  the  same  Heber  C.  Kimball,  every  compo- 
nent particle  of  his  body,  from  the  crown  of  his  head  to  the  soles  of  his 
feet,  will  be  resurrected,  and  he,  in  the  flesh,  will  see  God  and  converse 
with  Him ;  and  see  his  brethren  and  associate  with  them,  and  they  will 
enjoy  a  happy  eternity  together." 

The  bodies  that  once  walked  the  !N'ew  Atlantis  Isle — the 
mummied  forms  of  Egypt's  cemeteries  transferred  to  fuel, 
or  to  medicines  upon  apothecaries  shelves — the  crumbling 
scattered  remains  that  once  peopled  those  old  catacombs,  in 
the  Via  Appia — the  organized  particles  passing  into  in- 
visible gases,  freed  by  the  process  of  combustion,  incident 
to   crei  ation,  as  practiced  by  some  of  the  orientals — where 


332  DOCTRINES    OF   SPIRITUALISTS. 

are  they  ? — are  they  to  be  raised,  and  recoustructed  to 
constitute  the  future  temples  of  souls?  If  so,  "flesh  and 
hlood  will  inherit  the  kingdom  of  God;"  though  Paul,  in 
one  of  his  more  highly  illuminated  moments  taught  the 
contrary;  and  further,  we  sow — buri/  the  veritable  body 
which  shall  be;  though  this  same  apostle  said:  "  We  sow  not 
that  body  that  shall  be."  "There  is  a  natural  body,  and 
there  is  a  spiritual  body."  These  natural,  earthly  bodies  cor- 
respond to  the  chaff  of  the  wheat — the  husks  of  the  corn. 
Harvest-time  separates  them  forever;  because  the  end  for 
which  they  were  united  has  been  subserved.  So  with  the 
earthly  and  spiritual  bodies.  The  death-angel  divides  them 
forever. 

And  just  as  well  expect  the  blade  of  wheat  to  return  and 
re-enter  the  kernel  ;  the  oak,  the  acorn,  the  butterfly,  the 
chrysalis — or,  as  reasonably  expect  songful  birds  to  seek 
their  dilapidated  nests,  taking  on,  and  re-living  in  their  old 
shells,  as  immortal  spirits  to  return  grave-ward  in  some 
future  period,  to  seek  and  re-inhabit  their  earthly  bodies. 
^Rature  knows  no  retrogression.  Our  mortal  bodies  are 
raised  only  in  grasses  and  grains,  forests  and  fruits ;  but  our 
conscious  souls  move  on  in  the  line  of  progress  towards  the 
great  infinite  Soul  of  all  things. 

Roger  Williams,  too  liberal  for  the  Puritanic  Christianity 
of  his  time,  was  banished  by  Christians  afar  off  among  the 
heathen  Indians — the  Narraghanseits,  who,  in  the  gentle 
tolerance  of  Jesus,  received  him  into  their  weird,  wigwam 
homes.  The  Rev.  J.  H.  McCarty,  writing  recently  relative 
to  the  importance  of  erecting  a  suitable  monument  over  the 
place  where  his  body  was  interred,  says  : 

"  On  digging  down  into  the  '  charnel  house '  it  was  found  that 
everything  had  passed  into  oblivion.  The  shapes  of  the  coffins  could 
only  be  traced  by  a  black  line  of  carbonaceous  matter  the  thickness  of 
the  edges  of  the  sides  of  the  coffins,  with  their  onds  distinctly  defined. 
The  rusted  remains  of  the  hinges  and  nails,  with  a  few  fragments  of 
wood  and  a  single  round  knot,  was  all  that  could  be  gathered  from  his 
grave.  In  the  grave  of  his  wife  there  was  not  a  trace  of  anything  save 
a  single    lock  of  braided  hair    which    had  survived  the  lapse  of  more 


EXEQETICAL    SPIRITUALISM — RESURRECTION.  333 

than  180  years.  Near  the  grave  stood  a  venerable  apple  tree,  when 
and  by  whom  planted  is  not  known.  This  tree  had  sent  two  of  its 
main  roots  into  the  graves  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Williams.  The  larger 
root  had  pushed  its  way  through  the  earth  till  it  reached  the  j.recise 
spot  occupied  by  the  skull  of  Roger  Williams.  There  making  a  turn  as 
if  going  round  the  skull,  it  followed  the  direction  of  the  back  bone  to 
the  hips.  Here  it  divided  into  two  branches,  sending  one  along  each 
leg  to  the  heel,  where  they  both  turned  upward  to  the  toes.  One  of 
these  roots  formed  a  slight  crook  at  the  knee  which  makes  the  whole 
bear  a  very  close  resemblance  to  a  human  form.  This  singular  root  is 
preserved  with  great  care,  not  only  as  an  illustration  of  an  important 
principle  in  vegetation,  but  for  its  historic  association.  There  were 
the  graves,  emptied  of  every  particle  of  human  dust !  Not  a  trace  of 
anything  was  left ! '' 

The  grave  emptied  of  every  particle  of  human  dust ! — 
where  gone  ?  Those  apple-tree  roots,  thrusting  out  their 
hungry  feelers,  absorbed  it,  to  feed  a  yearly  fruitage.  Man 
partaking  of  this  fruit,  and  appropriating  it  by  a  law  of 
assimilation,  it  formed  a  part  of  their  own  bodies.  The 
inquiry  is,  who  will  legitimately  claim  these  elements,  pro- 
viding human  bodies  are  to  be  raised  ? 

Motion  inheres  in  all  things.  Particles  in  human  bodies 
change  from  seven  to  twenty-seven  years,  depending  upon 
condition  and  occupation.  Admitting  the  record,  Methu- 
saleh  living  over  nine  hundred  years,  must  have  had 
some  sixty  or  seventy  different  bodies  —  which  is  to  be 
anastasized!  In  certain  islands  of  the  ocean,  savages, 
termed  cannibals,  killing  their  enemies,  devour  their  flesh 
and  drink  their  blood ;  so  that  the  same  earthly  materials 
form  the  component  parts  of  two  or  more  individualized 
beings.  Who  is  to  own  them  in  the  resurrection?  Where 
Bonaparte  fought  his  most  sanguine  battles,  waved  the  next 
season  golden  grain.  These  harvests  were  unusually  luxuri- 
ant, because  blood  and  muscle,  had  enriched  the  soil  —  a 
soil  yielding  in  turn  grains  and  grazing  herds  for  the  sus- 
tenance of  man.  To  whom  will  these  life-materials  belong 
when  anastasized  and  re-constructed  ?  Children,  passing  as 
withered  buds  to  summer-land  spheres  of  innocence,  grow 


334  DOCTRINES    OF   SPIRITUALISTS. 

in  those  angel  gardens  to  spiritual  manhood  a  nd  woman- 
hood. Must  their  beautiful  well-rounded  forms  return  at 
the  sounding  of  a  resurrection  trumpet  and,  re-entering,  be 
compelled  to  dwell  in  their  infantile  bodies  ?  All  these 
physical  and  moral  impossibilities  are  legitimately  connected 
with  the  resurrection  of  the  body. 

It  is  often  asked,  Was  not  Jesus's  physical  body  raised  ? 
These  passages  give  the  answer  : 

"And  their  eyes  were  opened,  and  they  knew  himj  and  he  van- 
ished out  of  their  sight.*' 

"  Then  the  same  day  at  evening,  when  the  doors  were  shut,  where 
the  disciples  were  assembled,  ♦  *  *  came  Jesus  and  stood  in  the 
midst,  and  saith,  Peace  be  unto  you."  "  After  that,  he  appeared 
in  another  form  Mnto  two  of  them,  as  they  walked,  and  went  into  the 
country.'* 

These  passages  affirming  that  he  *'  stood  in  their  midst, 
the  doors  being  shut;"  that  after  his  crucifixion  he  drew  near 
and  went  with  them  towards  Emmaus,  their  '^  eyes  being 
holden,"  that  "they  knew  him  not,"  that  he  appeared  in 
*'  another  form,"  that  he  "  vanished  out  of  their  sight,"  &c., 
clearly  show  that  it  was  the  spiritual  Jesus,  clothed  with 
the  spiritual  bodj^  that  pertains  to  the  resurrection  state 
of  immortality.  The  disciples  saw  him,  because  clairvoy- 
ant. The  conditions  destroyed,  *'  he  vanished  from  their 
sight."  They  "vanished,"  not  he.  In  the  "twinkling  of 
an  eye''  a  clairvoyant  of  normal  mediumship  can  pass 
from  the  internal  to  the  external.  In  this  sense  the 
disciple  withdrew  from  Jesus. 

Again  it  is  asked,  If  the  physical  body  of  Jesus  was  not 
raised,  what  became  of  it?"  We  can  easily  conceive  that 
the  friends  might  have  removed  it  before  the  "  watch  "  was 
set,  or  tliat  the  same  angel,  who  rolled  the  stone  from  the 
door  of  the  tomb,  might  have  transported  away  "  the  body 
of  their  Lord."  The  disposition  of  that  body  is  of  no  more 
interest  to  us  than  that  of  Zeno,  Plato,  or  Confucius.  The 
important  question  is — Did  the  man  of  ^t^azareth  live  f  did  he 


EXEGETICAL   SPIRITUALISM  —  RESURRECTION.  385 

walk  again  in  their  company  clothed  with  his  glorified  body  ? 
This  we  believe,  as  his  reputed  biography  demonstrates. 

Death  is  the  disengagement  of  the  spiritual  from  the 
fleshly — the  severance  of  the  sympathetic  copartnership 
between  the  spiritual  and  earthly  bodies.  The  thinker  will 
note  the  distinction  between  the  soul  and  spirit.  The  old 
philosophers  clearly  perceived  this  distinction.  Plato  con- 
sidered the  soul  to  be  "  the  image  of  the  spirit."  Paul 
prayed  God  to  "preserve  body,  soul  and  spirit."  Professor 
Bush,  of  the  New  York  University,  said : 

"  As  it  is  through  the  gross  material  body  that  the  soul  manifests 
itself  in  the  present  world,  so  are  we  warranted  in  believing  that  it  is 
through  the  soul  that  the  spirit  manifests  itself  in  the  other  world ;  in 
other  words,  it  performs  for  the  spirit  the  office  of  a  body,  and  is 
consequently  so  termed/^ 

Soul  and  spiritual  body,  often  confounded  with  spirit,  are 
synonymous.  We  employ  the  terms,  soul  and  spiritual  body 
reciprocally;  and,  as  constituting  the  man,  use  this  formula 
— Physical  body,  Spiritual  body.  Spirit;  or,  body,  soul  and 
spirit. 

As  the  butterfly's  folded  wing,  in  its  rudimentary  state, 
can  be  traced  under  the  shell  of  the  chrysalis,  so  the  whole 
future,  resurrectional  body  is  contained,  or  wrapped  up,  in  the 
material  form,  during  mortal  life.  Its  release,  termed  death, 
is  really  birth.  A  modern  seeress,  writing  upon  the  *'  Phi- 
losophy of  Life,"  well  says,  "  As  the  physical  birth  of  the 
foetus  is  death  to  its  placenta  envelope,  so  a  spiritual  birth  is 
death  to  its  physical  casket,  the  body;  or,  as  the  destruction 
of  the  casket  in  which  the  child  is  developed,  implies  the 
birth  of  the  physical  system,  so  the  destruction  or  death  of 
the  physical  body  implies  the  birth  of  its  spiritual  system." 
Death,  as  a  divine  appointment  in  harmony  wnth  natural  law, 
and  in  its  time  beautiful,  is  equivalent  to  spiritual  birth, 
giving  enlarged  freedom  to  the  soul,  and  increased  facilities 
to  the  spirit  for  manifestation  and  perfection.  The  buds 
Bwell  into  floweis  wooed  by  the  sunlight;  the  birdlings  burst 


336  DOCTRINES    OF   SPIRITUALISTS. 

from  their  shells  for  flight  on  joyous  wing ;  the  child,  mater- 
nally developed,  gains  its  individual  freedom  in  outer  life 
through  pain,  effort  and  crying ;  so  the  spasms,  throes  and 
pantings,  sometimes  beheld  with  sympathizing  sorrow,  are 
but  the  strugglings  of  the  soul  to  release  itself  from  the 
coffined  walls  of  its  earthly  tabernacle.  What  seems  agony 
to  us  may  be  pleasure  to  the  emancipated. 

The  process  of  death  does  not  involve  the  disorganization 
of  the  spiritual  body.  If  it  is  th\is  absolutely  disintegrated 
into  scattered  particles,  by  what  law  is  it  reorganized  ?  May 
not  more  positive  individualities,  sustained  by  such  elements, 
selfishly  appropriate  what  belongs  to  another,  thus  virtually 
involving  the  destruction  of  individual  identity  ?  In  no 
department  of  nature  does  structural  disorganization  pre- 
cede birth.  Here,  disorganization  is  retrogression  to  the 
individuality  thus  subjected  to  the  unnatural  process  of 
unmaking  !  The  grain  does  not  resolve  itself  into  its  original 
elements  when  ready  to  be  ripened;  the  bird  does  not  return 
to  its  indefinable  diffuseness  in  its  shell  when  plumed  for  an 
exit ;  the  animal  does  not  cease  to  be,  for  a  moment,  when 
nature  casts  it  forth  for  a  higher  being. 

The  spiritual  bodi/,  composed  of  the  ultimates  of  all  the 
primates,  constitutes  a  symmetrical  wholeness  of  structure, 
and  is  unitively  unfolded  from  its  earthly  casket  as  the  rose 
from  the  rose-bud.  The  God-principle,  pivotal  and  central 
in  man,  continually  acts,  as  a  divine  magnet  ,  by  the  law  of 
necessity,  holding  the  spiritual  body  to  itself  in  a  continuous 
organized  unity.  The  law  of  attraction,  as  in  a  magnet  to 
steel,  is  an  infinite  law,  and  as  such  is  equally  active  during 
physical  life,  during  the  process  of  death,  and  forever 
thereafter. 

That  unformed,  cloud-shapen,  magnetic  mass,  seen  by 
clairvoyants,  hovering  over  the  corpse,  is  not  the  scattered 
fragmentary  substances  of  the  spiritual  body  thrown  around 
loosely,  but  the  electric  emanations  and  radiations  enveloping 
it  as  fural  atmospheres  around  the  earth.  Clairvoyants, 
subject  to   the   law   of  conditions,   and,    consequently,  not 


EXEGETICAL   SPIRITUALISM  —  RESURRECTION.  337 

always  authoritative,  may  mistake  this  magnetic  envelope 
for  the  real  substance  whence  it  is  evolved. 

During  the  process  of  death,  consciousness,  in  the  seeming, 
is  sometimes  suspended,  as  with  those  who  are  suddenly 
ushered  into  the  spirit  world  by  capital  punishment,  suicide 
or  accident,  and  with  those  especially  whose  habits  of  life, 
given  to  pernicious  gratification,  have  materialized  their 
senses,  as  if  locked  in  *' chains  of  darkness."  Those  who 
have  lived  pure  and  exalted  lives,  aglow  with  truth  and 
charity,  do  not  lose  their  consciousness  for  a  moment,  but 
cognize  the  transition  from  a  darker  to  a  more  illumined 
room  in  the  mansions  of  the  Father. 

There  are  no  idiots  to  the  spiritual  vision.  Imbecility  is 
caused  by  malformation  of  the  physical  organization.  Enter- 
ing the  spirit  world,  released  from  ante-natal  and  social  per- 
versions, they  immediately  commence  their  upward  march 
of  knowledge  and  wisdom. 

Infants  are  immortal  from  the  sacred  moment  of  embry- 
onic existence.  Uniting  the  alkali  and  acid,  instantly  you 
have  the  third  and  higher  compound — the  salt.  So  when 
the  positive  and  negative  relational  forces  blend,  then  and 
there  is  the  divine  incarnation.  ]!Tature  never  takes  a  retro- 
gressive step.  If  purposely  blasted,  during  the  gestative  life, 
the  spiritual  principle  remaining  undisturbed,  and  the  indi- 
viduality in  iacty  the  tender  riven  bud  is  borne  by  matronlv 
angels  to  the  nursery  gardens  of  innocence  to  be  trained  in 
the  virtues  of  the  spheres.  Designed  abortion  is  murder ! 
Multitudes  will  meet  those  offended  little  ones  that  ought 
to  have  had  a  natural,  physical  birth  and  the  experiences  of 
an  earthly  life,  preparatory  to  a  ripened  entrance  into  the 
world  of  spirits.  Prematurely  ushered  there,  the  spiritual 
objective  being  based  upon  the  material,  they  are  necessi- 
tated by  a  law  of  their  being,  to  return  under  heavenly 
guidance  to  the  mediumistic  spheres  of  sympathizing  friends 
to  gather  glimpses  of,  and  participate  in,  earthly  struggles 
and  victories. 

22 


338  DOCTRINES    OF   SPIRITUALISTS. 

Identity  is  cognate  with  existence  itself.  It  is  the  natural 
attribute  of  spirit — its  very  impressibility.  It  depends  not 
on  form  for  recognition,  but  the  form  on  it.  Every  part  of 
the  grain  we  sow  is  represented  in  the  harvest.  Essential 
spirit  being  inseparable  substance,  and  ever  reporting  itself 
magnetically,  we  recognize  it  by  sympathy,  the  same  as  a 
child  in  the  darkness  knows  its  mother  without  the  aid  oi 
sight  or  hearing.  Our  spheres  are  ourselves  extended — our 
very  loves  and  thoughts  in  telegraphic  communication. 
When,  therefore,  spirits  from  the  mortal  lands  meet  the 
gone  before,  instantly,  by  sympathy,  they  recognize  each 
other,  and  the  past,  with  all  its  checkered  pilgrimages,  indel- 
libly  engraved  on  the  tablet  of  memory,  rolls  in  upon  the 
consciousness  with  light  and  shadow,  all  in  order  of  relations 
and  events,  in  sweet,  unspeakable  joy  and  fall  of  glory. 

The  king  will  know  his  subjects  there — they  the  more 
kingly  now ;  the  Indian  chief  will  know  his  tribe  there ;  the 
teacher,  the  pupil ;  the  parent,  the  cherub  child ;  congenial 
souls  will  blend  in  sweetest  fellowRhip ;  harmonial  spirits  will 
mingle  in  holiest  tenderness;  and  weary,  thorn-crowned  pil- 
grims of  earth,  finding  rest,  will  meet  their  redeemers,  face 
to  face.  '' Blessed  are  the  dead  that  die  in  the  Lord;  "  that 
is,  die  in  the  sphere  of  the  Christ- life — "  they  rest  from  their 
labors,  and  their  works  do  follow  them."  The  works  of  the 
good  both  follow  and  precede  them  into  the  heavenly  courts 
of  blessedness.  Courage,  sister!  Every  pure  thought 
breathed,  every  generous  word  uttered,  every  charitable 
deed  wrought,  every  heart-beat  for  virtue  and  peace,  will 
live  forever ! 

*♦  Beside  the  toilsome  way, 
Lonely  and  dark,  by  fruits  and  flowers  unblest, 
Which  thy  worn  feet  tread  sadly,  day  by  day, 

Longing  in  vain  for  rest, 

An  angel  softly  walks, 
With  pale,  sweet  face,  and  eyes  cast  meekly  down, 
The  while  from  withered  leaves  and  flowerless  stftlkl 

She  weaves  thy  fitting  crown." 


EXEGETICAL    SPIRITUALISM  —  RESURRECTION.  339 

Courage,  brother!  Martyrs  have  trodden  the  paths  of 
peril — saints  have  paced  the  cold  cells — hearts  have  ached— 
souls  have  hungered — fires  have  burned  around  the  forms  of 
the  faithful — storms  and  adversities  have  pelted  the  prophets 
— ejes  have  wept  tears  of  blood,  and  brows  platted  with 
coronals  of  persecution,  ere  the  world  knew  them,  or  they 
reaped  the  harvests  of  their  diligent  sowing.  Courage, 
sister,  brother,  speaker,  medium,  worker — courage ! 

A  beautiful,  guardian  angel  once  said  to  her  mate  on  earth : 
"Mind  echoes  to  mind;  heart  throbs  with  heart.  Together 
we  will  read  beauties — together  sing  one  melody  of  love — 
together  twine  garlands  to  deck  the  brow  of  sorrow — together 
tread  eternal  pathways,  and  bathe  in  life's  fountain  of  light. 
Yes,  together  we  will  sing  the  song  of  life — together  and 
forever.  We  shall  be  there  together ;  no  partings  ever  there; 
the  hands  once  joined  at  greeting,  shall  never  be  unloosed; 
two  buds  blossom  in  one  flower.  I  am  ever  near  thee.  Ask 
me  not  to  come.  Shall  the  rose  say,  I  wait  for  fragrance  ? 
Does  it  invite  sweetness  ?     Thus  are  we  united  !  " 

*«  I  shall  know  her  there  I  I  shall  know  her  there, 
By  the  shining  folds  of  her  wavy  hair, 
By  her  faultless  form  with  its  airy  grace 
That  an  angel's  pen  might  fail  to  trace — 
By  the  holy  smile  her  lips  will  wear, 
When  we  meet  above,  I  shall  know  her  there  I 

I  shall  know  her  there,  and  her  calm,  dark  eyes 
Will  look  in  mine  with  glad  surprise, 
When  my  bark,  wild-tost  o'er  life's  rough  main, 
The  far-off  port  of  heaven  shall  gain  ; 
Though  an  angel's  robe  and  a  crown  she  wear, 
By  the  song  she  sings  I  shall  know  her  there." 

Existence  is  unitive — eternal.  This  life  is  a  hotel  in  whicl 
mortals  tarry  but  a  little  season  for  rudirnental  experiences 
Earthly  furniture  is  not  transferable.  Ripening  through  toil 
and  suffering,  the  soul  emerges  from  this  chrysalis  state, 
tlirough  a  sweet  death-trance,  to  form  new  connections  and 
gD  up  one  step  higher  in  the  graduated  ascent  of  creation 


840  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

Not  the  drooping  willow,  nor  dark  cypress  ;  but  myrtle, 
laurel,  rose-buds  and  immortelles  are  fitting  funeral  emblems. 
Mourning  apparel  belongs  to  the  superstitions  of  the  past. 
Pleasant  words — cheerful  music,  should  be  voiced  in  the 
calm  hour  of  burial,  and  cemeteries  should  be  m.ide  as 
beautiful  as  the  groves  of  tropical  climes. 

•*  No  gloomy  vault,  no  charnel  cell, 
No  emblem  of  decay, 
No  solemn  sound  of  passing-bell. 

To  echo — ♦  gone  away ;  * 
But  angels  whisper  soft  and  olear — 
*  The  loved,  now  risen,  is  standing  neur.' " 


Chaptei^  XXXIX. 


PRAYER. 


"If  truth  the  inmost  soul  and  being  share. 
The  universe  becomes  a  book  of  prayer." 

"  Prayer  pushes  prayer 


Up  into  heaven's  sublime  air." 

—  "He  gathers  the  prayers  as  he  stands, 

And  they  change  into  flowers  in  his  hands. 

Into  garlands  of  purple  and  red  ; 

And  beneath  the  great  arch  of  the  portal, 
Through  the  streets  of  the  city  immortal, 

Is  wafted  the  fragrance  they  shed." 

l^ot  pre-arranged  words  or  the  utterance  of  measured 
phrases,  after  the  custom  of  the  ancient  Pharasee  and 
modern  hypocrite,  but  aspiration  is  prajer,  the  up-welling 
of  the  soul's  holiest  desires  and  struggles  to  attain  the  moral 
altitudes  of  perfection,  the  language  of  the  innermost  pant- 
ing for  the  actual,  the  rising  flame,  the  incense  of  pure 
thought,  the  prophecy  of  a  better  life,  the  chariot  of  love 
bearing  us  into  the  realm  of  the  divine. 

Prayer,  uttered  or  repressed,  aflfects  no  deific  law  or  prin- 
ciple. Dews  freshen  the  evening;  sunlight  bathes  the  morn- 
ing; fruits  fall  in  the  autumn-time;  meteors  descend  to  the 
earth ;  stars  move  in '  nightly  battalions  over  the  radiant 
plains  of  heaven,  all  in  accordance  with  infinite  causation, 
reckless  of  prayere  ir  intercessions. 

341 


342  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

The  immutable  and  unalterable  I  Am  is  in  no  way  affected 
by  the  instabilities  of  men.  Neither  smiles  nor  tears — vices 
nor  virtues,  nor  prayers,  change  that  divine  Energy,  who  is 
"  the  same  yesterday  and  forever."  Prayer  expands  the  soul 
that  breathes  it,  and  opens  to  clearer  vision  the  portals  of  the 
spirit-world,  in  which  all  have  the  right  of  citizenship.  It 
intromits  the  petitioner  into  closer  fellowship  with  heavenly 
hosts,  and,  imparting  a  holier  baptism,  raises  him  above  the 
worthless  things  of  earth.  The  soul  in  self-communie^n  feels 
its  immensity,  its  relation  to  the  universe,  and  its  illimitable 
future.  And  through  prayer  and  meditation,  the  external 
universe  partially  reveals  its  inmost  self,  and  another  uni- 
verse within — the  subjective — opens  in  grandeur,  seemingly 
limitless  before  the  spirit  vision. 

One  of  our  most  philosophical  writers  on  Spiritualism, 
purely  appreciating  the  law  of  prayer,  says : 

"  When  man  comes  into  that  department  of  being  where  all  that  is  evil 
and  false  ceases,  when  every  impure  and  unjust  desire  and  impulse  is 
banished,  and  when  the  soul,  in  its  yearnings  after  the  divine,  puts  forth 
all  its  life  and  power  in  humble,  submissive  prayer — then  is  such  soul 
elevated  to  the  summit  of  its  being,  and  there  is  infilled  with  the  living 
presence  of  Divinity,  which  makes  the  whole  being  radiant  with  spir- 
itual light.  Such  a  degree  of  elevation  is  coming  into  the  '  Mount  of 
Transfiguration,^  and  all  who  have  really  been  there,  have  felt  its 
blessedness  and  desired  to  establish  his  tabernacle  thereon." 

Jesus,  speaking  from  the  inner  life,  said — 

"When  thou  prayest,  thou  shalt  not  be  as  the  hypocrites  are  j  for 
they  love  to  pray  standing  in  the  synagogue  and  at  the  corners  of  the 
Btreots  to  be  seen  of  men.  *  *  *  j^^^^  when  thou  prayest,  enter 
into  thy  closet,  and  when  thou  hast  shut  thy  door,  pray  to  thy  Father 
which  is  in  secret,  and  thy  Father  which  seeth  in  secret  shall  reward 
thee  openly.'' 

James  the  apostle,  in  an  inspired  moment,  asked — 

"  Is  any  sick  among  you  ?  let  him  call  for  the  elders  of  the  ♦hurch ; 
and  let  them  pray  over  him,  anointing  him  with  oil,  *  *  *  md  the 
prayer  of  faith  shall  save  the  sick." 


EXEQETICAL    SPIRITUALISM  —  PRAYER.  545 

To  plead  with  God  for  this  or  that,  "  for  Christ's  sake, '  is 
churchal,  but  not  philosophical.  Prajer  moves  us,  and  all 
in  sympathy  with  us,  as  one  chord  in  a  musical  instrun  ent 
tones  another,  bringing  us  more  and  more  into  harmony 
with  heavenly  order.  It  is  devoid  of  all  virtue  without 
practice.  The  sectarist  prays  God  to  send  rain  in  the  dry 
season,  while  the  philosopher  prays  by  irrigating  his  fields 
and  gardens.  The  bigot  prays  God  to  feed  the  poor,  whilst 
the  philanthropist  prays  by  carrying  supplies  to  their  very 
doors.  The  churchman,  partaking  of  a  rich  repast,  prays 
God  to  clothe  and  comfort  the  widow  and  the  fatherless,  and 
expects  b}^  these  soulless  ceremonies  to  win  the  special  favor 
of  heaven.  Up  from  your  knees,  0  Ritualist !  and  bestow 
the  blessings  which  you  ask  God  to  confer.  Golden  the  age 
when  men  will  do,  rather  than  say  their  prayers.  The  Grecian 
drayman  received  no  help  from  Hercules,  though  calling  in 
prayer,  until  he  put  his  shoulder  to  the  wheel. 

Invocations  to  spirits,  angels,  God — "  Jehovah,  Jove,  or 
Lord" — when  bubbling  up  spontaneously  from  the  inner 
depths,  are  vitalizing  and  strengthening  to  the  divine  forces 
of  the  soul.  Whether  most  efficacious,  voiced,  or  breathed 
in  calm  silence,  each  must  determine,  l^o  mortal  is  inde- 
pendent. Sympathies  and  destinies  blend  like  the  tremulous 
branches  of  forest  trees.  Man,  dependent  as  stream  upon 
fountain,  is  fed  from  the  ever-flowing  rivers  of  inspiration. 
Is  it  not  expressive  of  gratitude,  as  well  as  wisdom,  then,  for 
man  to  look  to  God,  as  drop,  rill,  stream,  lake,  all,  to  the 
immeasurable  oceanic  fountain  of  waters  ?  Thus,  aspiring  to 
the  good  and  lofty,  to  angels  and  arch-angels,  we  approx- 
imate their  states  of  recipient  love,  and  become  illumined 
with  the  Promethean  fires  of  God's  eternal  sunshine,  our 
souls  invited  up  and  standing  upon  high  mountains  of  holi- 
ness, under  the  arching  rainbows  of  Infinite  Mercy. 

Aspiration  knows  no  bounds;  ideally  it  measures  all 
spaces  over  which  the  soul  treads ;  it  is  the  highest  form  ot 
prayer.  The  immediate  object  of  prayer,  then,  is  to  incite 
calmneas  of  spirit.     It  puts  us  into  an  inspirational  condition, 


344  DOCTRINES    OF   SPIRITUALISTS. 

enabling  us  to  come  into  rapport  with  heavenly  presences, 
association  with  whom  transforms  us  into  their  own  moral 
likeness.  Companionship  with  poets  makes  us  poetical ; 
with  musicians,  musical;  with  objects  of  beaut}^  beautiful 
in  character;  with  the  good,  divinely  spiritual.  Folded 
unde»*  the  wing  of  immortal  hope,  embosomed  on  the  heart 
of  the  Infinite,  thrilled  with  the  pulsations  of  angel  faith,  we 
thus  ascend  higher,  higher  in  thought  and  purpose — the 
children  of  God  gathered  home  in  the  heaven  of  Love. 


ChAPTEF^  XL. 


FREEDOM  AND  FUNCTION  OF  LOVB. 


♦•Love  is  the  fulfilling  of  the  law." 

**Come  angel  I  for  I  need  thy  love 

More  than  the  flower  the  dew,  or  grass  the  rain. 
Come  angel !  like  the  mystic  dove, 

And  let  me  in  thy  smiles  rejoice  and  live  again ! " 

**  Love  communes  in  gentle  glances, 
Feet  responsive  glide  in  dances, 

Over  there  ; 
Orange-buds  and  pure  white  flowers, 
Lattice  the  hymenial  bowers. 

Over  there." 

Jesus  loved  Martha,  and  her  sister  Mary,  and  Lazarus. 
Love  is  not  merely  a  white  lily  undulating  upon  embosomed 
waters,  not  an  seolean  harp  murmuring  music  in  the  window, 
not  the  cooing  of  the  turtle  doves,  but  an  active  principle,  a 
divine  soul-emotion,  the   central    magnet  of  our  conscious 
existence.     Just  in  the  ratio  of  the  souPs  unfoldment,  love 
becomes   subjective,   philosophic,   idealistic    and    universal. 
Platonic  love,  blending  with  the  fraternal,  and  enzoned  by 
the  infinite,  is  exalting  beyond  all  heights  of  mortal  percep- 
tion ;  and  yet  as  well  talk  metaphysics  to  mummied  gorillas, 
as  such  love,  disenthralled  of  passion  and  earthliness,  to 
those  who  swelter  in  the  lower  brain  department  of  their 
cranial  organisms. 

345 


346  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

The  inimitable  Emerson,  determined  to  preserve  his  whole- 
ness, and  recognizing  no  one  being  as  absolutely  necessary  to 
his  happiness,  sajs  of  those  early  selfish  loves: 

"  I  know  how  delicious  is  this  cup  of  love — I  existing  for  you.  you 
existing  for  me;  but  it  is  a  child  clinging  to  his  toy,  an  attempt  to 
eternize  the  fireside  and  nuptial  chamber;  to  keep  the  picture  alphabet 
through  which  our  first  lessons  were  prettily  conveyed.  *  *  *  Once 
abroad,  we  pity  those  who  can  forego  the  magnificence  of  Nature's  Eden 
for  candle  light  and  cards.  *  *  *  This  early  dream  of  love, 
though  beautiful,  is  only  one  scene  in  our  life-play.  In  the  procession 
of  the  soul  from  within  outward,  it  enlarges  its  circles,  like  light  pro- 
ceeding from  an  orb.  It  passes  from  loving  one  to  loving  all ;  and  so, 
this  one  beautiful  soul  opens  the  divine  door  through  which  he  enters  to 
the  society  of  all  true  and  pure  souls.  Thus  in  our  first  years  are  we 
put  in  training  for  a  love  which  knows  neither  sex,  person,  nov  parti- 
ality ;  but  which  seeks  virtue  and  wisdom  everywhere,  to  the  end  of 
increasing  virtue  and  wisdom." 

Say  not  that  Emerson's  nature  is  cold  and  icy,  reflecting 
only  the  cr3^stalline  side  of  life.  To  those  sufficiently  exalted 
rightly  to  translate  him,  he  is  warm,  fresh,  and  golden.  His 
soul  feeds  ours.  Abiding  in  such  love,  we  drink  at  his  living 
fount  of  ideas,  thrive  upon  his  inspirational  truths,  bathe  in 
his  dreamy  mysticisms,  and  feel  the  influx  of  eternal  youth. 

Souls  require  no  introduction.  The  recognition  is  intu- 
itional. Meeting  a  noble  soul  that  knows  our  soul,  we 
indulge  the  pleasing  truth  to  us,  that  we  knew  the  loved  one 
in  a  pre-existent  state,  and  delicious  were  those  delicate 
experiences  in  the  sweet  realms  of  blessedness.  Too  etherial 
were  the  workings  of  that  inner  consciousness,  thm^  to  be 
now  projected  into  the  external  memory  of  earth's  sordid 
masses,  cloyed  with  the  cares  of  this  material  life. 

"'Tis  somewhere  told  in  Eastern  story, 
That  those  who  loved  once  bloomed  as  flowers 
On  the  same  stem,  amid  the  glory 
Of  Eden's  green  and  fragrant  bowers; 
And  that,  though  parted  oft  by  fate, 

Yet  when  the  glow  of  life  is  ended,  ' 

Each  soul  again  shall  find  its  mate, 
And  in  one  bloom  again  be  blended." 


EXEQETICAL    SPIRITUALISM  —  LOVE.  347 

While  Thomas  Carlyle  worships  force — a  king  being  to 
him  the  man  that  can  and  does — while  John  Stuart  Mill 
continues  to  scatter  incense  upon  the  altar  of  original  ideas, 
be  it  ours  to  do  homage  at  the  sacred  shrine  of  love — a  love 
pure,  Platonian  and  universal.  Such  germinating  from  the 
soul's  center,  summering  eternal  in  the  brain's  crystal  dome, 
and  looking  tenderly  towards  the  Infinite,  incarnated  in  all 
humanity,  is  not  passional,  selfish,  nor  exacting.  It  does  not 
demand  attention,  talks  not  of  duty,  lusts  not  after  virtue, 
but  trusts  in  principle — law — liberty — God  ! 

Beautiful  in  efifect  is  the  medicine  of  love  to  the  morally 
diseased.  It  works  by  an  infinitude  of  methods,  but  always 
to  redemptive  ends.  When  fires,  faggots,  clanking  chains, 
and  gloomy  penitentiaries  had  all  failed  to  reform,  "  the  still 
small  voice  "  of  love  touched  the  heart-strings,  opened  a  new 
fountain  and  redeemed  the  erring.  This  principle  wielded 
by  William  Penn,  tamed  the  Indian  soul  and  toned  it  to  throb 
in  kindness.  Wielded  by  the  benignant  Howard,  it  made 
dingy  prisons,  in  Europe,  schools  of  reform.  Breathed  by 
the  great-hearted  Oberlin,  it  transformed  many  by-corners 
of  pollution,  in  the  old  world,  into  blooming  gardens.  Whis- 
pered by  the  womanly  Elizabeth  Fry,  it  filled  those  dungeoned 
in  houses  of  refuge  and  asylums  of  outcasts  with  higher 
thoughts  and  purer  ideals — as  sure  to  produce  high,  elevating 
influences,  as  are  shivering  lightnings  to  do  their  missioned 
work.  Moral  power  is  the  only  force  ever  employed  by  God, 
or  angels,  in  the  divine  order  of  subjugation.  It  is  the 
deepest  and  mightiest  principle  in  the  universe — the  silvery 
sea  over  which  mortals  sail  to  the  heaven  they  seek.  Oh,  it 
is  sweet — it  is  life  evermore  to  breathe  the  beauty  of  love ! 

"For  love  is  the  theme  that  the  seraph  choirs 
Are  now  hymning  through  the  stars, 
And  we  catch  the  strain  from  their  golden  lyres, 
When  our  souls  let  down  their  bars." 

Love  bears  no  more  relation  to  lust,  than  Christ  to  the 
Adam,  than  heaven  to  the  hells.     Lust  is  perversity,  and  is 


348  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

no  more  love  than  light  is  darkness,  or  good  is  evil.  How 
important  clearly  to  comprehend  the  occult  forces  of  life,  to 
distinguish  between  use  and  abuse  !  The  legitimate  purpose 
of  Combativeness  is  not  pugilism,  but  a  force-power  acting 
in  conjunction  with  benevolence  and  justice.  So  the  primal 
purpose  of  Amativeness  is  not  gratification,  nor  pleasurable 
intoxication,  but  "  tbe  replenishing  of  the  earth."  All  more 
than  this  is  w^asted  expenditure,  and  nature  hurls  terrible 
penalties  at  those  who  thus  destroy  their  vital  forces.  The 
legitimacy  of  the  generative  plane,  under  the  guidance  of 
the  wisdom  principle,  is  admissible. 

On  the  earthly  planes  of  life, reproductions  are  earthly;  in 
the  spirit  realms,  spiritual ;  in  the  celestial,  celestial.  Angels 
generate  thoughts,  ideas,  redemptive  reforms.  It  is  beau- 
tiful to  become  angelic  on  earth.  There  should  be  a  mount 
of  ascension,  a  spiritual  birth  to  each  brain  organ,  a  heavenly 
polarity,  before  physical  death.  Said  Jesus,  "  Ye  must  be 
born  again ! "  Each  faculty  should  be  developed  on  the 
ascending  line  of  divine  use.  Desire  should  be  gratified 
only  when  pure,  normal  and  subjected  to  the  highest  reason. 

Through  ante-natal  perversions  and  individual  excesses, 
humanity  stands  arraigned  to-day,  degenerate  and  incomplete. 
The  remedy  is  not  in  multiplying  the  causes.  God's  laws 
are  not  to  be  trifled  with.  Perverted  passions  that  blotch 
the  face  and  cloud  the  moral  nature,  are  not  to  be  permitted 
to  run  their  course,  but  to  be  curbed,  controlled,  directed  and 
lifted  to  higher  fields  of  action.  I^othing  could  be  more 
dangerous  than  railroad-riding,  with  the  steam-forces  neither 
managed  nor  guided  by  the  engineer. 

To  let  the  ^'■passions  flow  as  rivers  from  lands  to  seas,"  is 
equivalent  to  saying — let  the  d'^inkard  drink — drinking 
deeper  draughts  of  liquid  poison,  will  cure  inebriation  and 
usher  in  the  millenium  morn  of  temperance'  Intensifying 
the  darkness  of  a  dark  apartment,  would  be  considered  by  a 
scientist  a  very  singular  method  for  producing  light.  True, 
the  passions  are  not  to  be  utterly  eradicated;  but  to  be  sub- 
ordinated to  holy  uses.     Tl  ey  are  not,  as  a  loose,  slipshod 


EXEGETICAL    SPIRITUALISM  —  LOVE.  349 

optimism  affirms,  to  have  full  sway,  producing  pl/sical  hag- 
garduess  and  spiritual  imbecility.  Checked,  trained,  edu- 
cated, as  nature-forces,  by  resurrectional  processes,  they  are 
to  rise  through  the  strata  of  organic  being  to  the  arching 
brain  faculties,  clarified  and  purified  to  blend  and  act  iu 
harmony  with  the  moral  and  reasoning  brain-regions  of 
man's  spiritual  nature.  Mrs.  Willard,  in  her  "  Sexology," 
makes  this  pointed  statement : 

"  It  is  excessive  sexual  abuse  that  produces  so  much  nervous  debility 
in  men  and  women.  We  have  inherited  it  from  our  ancestors,  and  v/e 
transmit  it  to  our  children.  *  *  *  Houses  of  infamy  and  their 
pollutions  are  not  the  worst  results  of  sexual  abuses,  because  they  are 
confined  to  them;  they  are  diffused  into  families  and  transmitted  to 
children.  *  *  *  Sexual  commerce  is  just  as  bad  as  self-abuse, 
when  carried  to  the  same  excess.     In  a  certain  sense  it  is  worse." 

In  "  Memoranda  of  Persons  and  Events,"  A.  J.  Davis 
testifies  that — 

"That  misery-promoting  abuse  of  the  conjugal  relation,  called  free- 
passionism,  is  an  'incident^  to  the  development  of  mankind  out  of 
blood  into  spirit — out  of  materialism  into  spirituality — out  of  prosti- 
tution, into  the  divine  order  of  society,  when  moral  women  will  be  but 
little  lower  than  the  angels.  *  *  *  There  is  but  one  true  marriage ; 
namely,  the  marriage  of  the  right  man  with  the  right  woman^  forever." 

The  apocalyptic  John  saw,  in  vision,  "  an  hundred  and 
forty  and  four  thousand,"  having  his  Father's  name  written 
in  their  foreheads.  And  he  heard  the  voice  of  these  harpere 
harping  with  their  harps.  They  sung,  as  it  were,  a  new 
song,  and  none  could  learn  the  song  but  the  redeemed,  *  * 
*  And  the  voice  said — "  These  are  they  which  were  not 
defiled  with  women.  *  *  *  They  enter  through  the  gates 
into  the  city  " — city  of  the  "  ISTew  Jerusalem  " — the  angelic 
dispensation  that  "  cometh  down  from  God  out  of  heaven." 

''  Starving  souls  "  cannot  find  supplies  on  the  animal  plane. 
Physical  commerce  cannot  satisfy  5ow^-wants.  "  That  which 
is  born  of  the  flesh  is  flesh."  As  the  beautiful  vine  in  the 
filthy  cellar,  pale  and  sickly,  needs  solar  light ;  so  the  soul, 
satiated  on  the  poisons  of  sensuality,  is  emaciated  and  dying 


350  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALISTS. 

dying  for  love — for  heart-love — for  divine  love — the  soUr 

love  of  angels. 

Hidden  deep  under  soils  and  sloughs  are  the  nuclei,  the 
types  and  buds  of  unblown  flowers,  struggling  to  rise  from 
their  sedimental  graves  into  the  free,  fresh  light  of  heaven. 
So  are  there  mortals  who,  from  pre-natal  conditions  and 
debasing  associations,  live  and  seemingly  luxuriate  down  in 
the  lower,  back-brain  department  of  their  being.  Their  con- 
dition is  deplorable ;  their  suffering  must  be  intense — their 
struggles  long  and  tearful.  Far  be  it  from  us  to  condemn 
them.  Jesus  did  not  "  condemn  the  woman  caught  in  sin  ;  '* 
but  he  did  say,  "Go  and  sin  no  more!"  White-robed 
angels,  standing  upon  the  mountains  of  the  pure  and  beau- 
tiful, are  saying  to  those — to  all — '*  Come  up  higher  !  " 

All  the  germinal  forces  of  the  soul  are  divine;  the  wrong 
comes  from  their  misdirections  through  material  forms ;  the 
transgression  from  the  ignorant  or  the  wilful  abuse  of  the 
good.  Amativeness  disrobed  of  earthliness,  turned  into 
higher  channels,  resurrected  and  actualized,  as  in  angelic 
life,  may  not  only  originate,  but  may  be  considered  the 
synonym  of  emotional  love — a  love  pure,  free  and  divine, 
working  with  and  inspiring  the  moral  excellence  of  the 
immortalized  in  heaven.  This  love,  so  spontaneous  and 
holy,  flowing  out  in  gushing  fountains  of  purity  from  regen- 
erate souls  to  all  humanity,  should  be  cramped  by  no  chains, 
crushed  by  no  "  law-corpse,"  appropriated  by  no  selfish 
parasite,  nor  hedged  about  by  the  cage-wires  and  coriven- 
tionalities  of  custom. 

"One  night  I  watched  the  shapeless  clouds 
That  o'er  my  mind  were  rolling, 
Till  the  clock's  slow  and  measured  tones 
The  hour  of  twelve  were  tolling." 

Then  o'er  the  loved  disciples'  page 

Was  I  my  vigil  keeping: 
I  read  and  mused  and  read  again, 

While  all  the  world  was  sleeping : 


EXEGETICAL    SPIRITUALISM  —  LOVB.  35) 

And  as  I  mused,  I  felt  a  fire 

Within  me  gently  glowing; 
Passion  sunk  low,  as  drooping  gales 

At  hush  of  eve  stop  blowing. 

The  clouds  that  o'er  my  spirit  hung 

Gave  sweet  and  gentle  warning  ; 
They  changed  to  white  and  purpling  flakes 

As  at  the  dawn  of  morning  ; 
And  then  looked  through  the  countenance, 

Clothed  in  its  sun-bright  splendor, 
The  *  loved  '  who  with  the  saints  of  old 

Kept  holy  watch,  and  tender. 

His  robe  was  white  as  flakes  of  snow 

When  through  the  air  descending  ; 
I  saw  the  clouds  beneath  him  melt, 

And  rainbows  o'er  him  bending  ; — 
And  then  a  voice, — no,  not  a  voice, — 

A  deep  and  calm  revealing 
Came  to  me  like  a  vesper-strain 

O'er  tranquil  waters  stealing. 

And  ever  since,  that  countenance 

Is  on  my  pathway  shining  ; 
A  sun  from  out  a  higher  sky 

Whose  light  knows  no  declining. 
All  day  it  falls  upon  my  road, 

And  keeps  my  feet  from  straying ; 
And  when  at  night  I  lay  me  down 

I  fall  asleep  while  praying." 

The  tendency  of  the  spiritually  minded  is  from  grossnesa 
to  refinement — from  promiscuity  to  chastity — from  chastity 
to  holiness — from  holiness  to  divinity.  The  higher  the  moral 
ambition,  the  more  complete  and  victorious  the  virtue! 
This  Adamic  battle  ground  cleared,  the  kingdom  of  God  has 
come  with  its  newness  of  life — "ITot  according  to  the  flesh, 
but  according  to  the  spirit."  The  Apostle  John  declared 
that  he  had  passed  from  death  unto  life ;  because  he  loved 
the  brethren.  This  love  can  never  degenerate  into  license, 
nor  its  liberty  into  anarchy ;  for  it  is  a  principle,  disrobed 
of  earthly  passion — a  holy  resurrection. 


352  DOCTRINES    OF    SPiRITUALiSTS. 

All  men  are  ray  brothers;  all  women,  my  sisters;  all 
children,  my  children  ;  and  I  am  every  mortals  child.  Deep 
is  our  interest  in  every  infant  born  into  earth -life.  Its  des- 
tiny is  linked  with  ours,  and  our  love  flows  to  it  free,  to  all 
humanity  free  as  God's  sunlight. 

Let,  then,  our  country  be  the  universe;  our  home  the 
world;  our  religion  Vo  do  ^ood;  our  rett  wherever  a  human 
heart  beats  in  harmony  with  ours;  ai.d  our  desire  be  to 
enkindle  in  the  breasts  of  earth's  millions  the  fires  of  aspi- 
ration, aiding  them  in  their  progress  up  the  acclivities  of  life, 
even  to  the  very  gate  of  heaven.  Let  all  the  love  that  can 
be  attracted  from  our  inmost  being,  be  appropriated  by  the 
poor,  and  the  crushed,  and  the  needy,  and  the  fallen — by  you, 
the  world,  the  angels.  Then  will  be  actualized  the  words  of 
Jesus — '^  All  mine  are  thine,  and  thine  are  mine." 

During  that  precious  pentecostal  hour,  when  the  divine 
afflatus  streamed  down  in  rivers  of  light  from  angelic  abodes, 
not  only  "  many  believed,"  but  they  were  so  baptized  into 
those  unselfish  loves  of  the  spiritual  world,  that  they  resolved 
to  "have  all  things  in  common."  When  these  universal 
love-principles  are  made  practical,  the  soil  will  be  as  free  to 
all  to  cultivate  as  the  air  they  breathe ;  gardens  will  blossom 
and  bear  fruitage  for  the  poor,  and  orphans  find  homes  in  all 
houses,  there  drawn  by  the  music  of  tenderest  sympathy;  the 
brows  of  toiling  millions  be  wreathed  with  white  roses — 
symbols  of  perpetual  peace. 


ChAPTEP^    XLl. 


GENIUS  OF  SPIRITUALISM. 


"  And  God  will  make  divinely  real 
The  highest  forms  of  their  ideal." — Chapin. 

"  Now  concerning  spiritual  gifts,  brethren,  I  would  not  have  you  ignorant. 
For  to  one  is  given  by  the  Spirit,  the  word  of  wisdom  ;  to  another  the  word  of 
knowledge  by  the  same  Spirit;  to  another  the  gifts  of  healing  by  the  same 
Spirit ;  to  another  the  working  of  miracles  ;  to  another  prophecy  ;  to  another 
discerning  of  spirits." — Apostle  Paul. 

**  Upspringing  from  the  buried  Old 
I  see  the  New." — Whittier. 

The  rapid  diffusion  of  the  divine  principles  involved  in 
modern  Spiritualism,  startling  to  conservative  Protestants,  is 
unprecedented  in  the  historic  annals  of  any  religious  move- 
ment. An  accredited  church  historian  estimates  that  when 
Jesus  suffered  crucifixion,  he  had,  aside  from  his  apostles 
and  a  few  angular,  uneducated  disciples,  less  than  three  hun- 
dred believers.  It  is  certain  that  when  the  Nicean  Council 
assembled  early  in  the  third  century,  there  were  hardly 
thirty  thousand  Christians  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  Kow, 
at  the  expiration  of  twenty  years,  numbering  millions.  Spir- 
itualism has  entered  the  domain  of  science,  art,  religion  and 
the  most  acceptable  literature  of  the  country.  Roman 
Catholicism,  seeing  Protestantism  crumbling  into  sectarian 
fragments,  fears  only  the  rapid  march  of  Spiritualism. 
23  353 


354  DOCTRINES    OF   SPIRITUALISTS. 

Waging  a  war  of  ideas,  the  new  against  the  old — know- 
ledge against  creedal  faith — science  against  sectarianism — free- 
dom against  dogmatic  formulas,  and  the  broadest  liberality 
against  an  effete  theology — denying  an  arrogant  priesthood 
and  a  catering  public  press — reckless  of  popish  bulls  and 
judicial  decisions — heedless  of  the  long-established  author- 
ities of  Church  and  State — facing  fashion  with  the  religious 
responsibility  commonly  ascribed  to  the  popular  worship — 
Spiritualism,  heaven-born  and  angel-guarded,  has  moved 
forward  to  a  prominent  and  enviable  position,  and  now 
shouts  in  trumpet  tones — 

"Sects  must  unmask  to  man's  diviner  needs, 
Kings  from  their  mocking  thrones  must  topple  down ; 
God  !  in  thy  name,  Humanity  yet  bleeds, 
But  Truth  hath  risen,  and  marcheth  to  renown." 

Spiritualism,  a  divine  eclecticism,  is  based  upon  present 
tangible  facts,  upon  past  historic  testimonies  and  the  soul's 
highest  intuitions.  In  addition  to  a  national  organization, 
denominated,  "  The  American  Association  of  Spiritualists ^^^ 
Spiritualism  has  already  several  energetic  State  Conven- 
tions; thousands  of  local  societies  and  circles,  sustaining 
lecturers  and  media;  a  large  number  of  flourishing  Chil- 
dren's Progressive  Lyceums ;  State  Missionary  organizations, 
sending  out  efficient  workers  thoroughly  imbued  with  the 
elements  of  reform  and  the  heavenly  inspirations  of  the  age: 
and  not  mentioning  those  known  to  fame,  it  has  tens  of 
thousands  of  media  in  private  families,  who  purposely  hide 
themselves  from  the  wanton  glare  of  public  life.  It  pub- 
lishes nine  periodicals  in  the  United  States — weeklies  and 
monthlies — and  its  publishing  and  yearly  book-trade  is 
rapidly  increasing. 

iTotwithstanding  the  gathered  lore  and  historic  records  of 
the  ages,  demonstrating  the  ministry  of  spirits,  in  connection 
with  the  phenomena  of  the  present,  the  groping,  unthinking 
multitudes  reject  Spiritualism — reject  it  precisely  as  did  men, 
in  high  reputed  places,  the  telegraphic  discovery   of  Prof 


EXEQETICAL  SPIRITUALISM — GENIUS  OF  SPIRITUALISM.      355 

Morse.     At  a  banquet  in  liis  honor,  recently  given  in  New 
York,  Prof.  Morse  said  : 

"  A  brief  narrative  of  certain  events  in  the  early  history  of  the  inven- 
tion, when  it  was  a  suppliant  for  aid  in  the  halls  of  Congress,  will  give 
the  answer  to  many  questions.  I  must  not  detain  you  with  too  much 
detail,  but  the  contrast  of  then  and  now  cannot  fail  at  least  to  amuse 
you.     As  the  narrative  is  very  short,  allow  me  to  quote  it : 

'  House  of  Representatives, 

*  February  21,  1843. 

*  ELECTRO  AND  ANIMAL  MAGNETISM. 

<  On  motion  of  Mr.  Kennedy,  of  Maryland,  the  committee  took  up  the 
bill  to  authorize  a  series  of  experiments  to  be  made  in  order  to  test  the 
merits  of  Morse's  electro  magnetic  telegraph.  The  bill  appropriates 
$30,000,  to  be  expended  under  the  direction  of  the  Postmaster  General. 

'  Mr.  Cave  Johnson  wished  to  have  a  word  to  say  upon  the  bill.  As 
the  present  Congress  had  done  much  to  encourage  science,  he  did  not 
wish  to  see  the  science  of  mesmerism  neglected  and  overlooked.  He 
therefore  proposed  that  one-half  of  the  appropriation  be  given  to  Mr. 
Fisk  (a  gentleman  at  that  time  lecturing  in  Washington  on  mesmerism), 
to  enable  him  to  carry  on  experiments  as  well  as  Professor  Morse. 

'  Mr.  Houston  thought  that  Millerism  should  also  be  included  in  the 
benefits  of  the  appropriation. 

'  Mr.  Stanley  said  he  should  have  no  objections  to  the  appropriation 
for  mesmeric  experiments,  provided  the  gentleman  from  Tennessee  (Mr. 
Johnson)  was  the  subject.     (A  laugh.) 

'  Mr.  Cave  Johnson  said  he  should  have  no  objections,  provided  the 
gentleman  from  North  Carolina  (Mr.  Stanley)  was  the  operator.  (Great 
laughter.) 

'  Several  gentlemen  called  for  the  reading  of  the  amendment,  and  it 
was  read  by  the  clerk,  as  follows  : 

'  Provided  that  one-half  of  the  said  sum  shall  be  appropriated  for 
trying  mesmeric  experiments  under  the  direction  of  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury.' 

'  Mr.  Mason  (of  Ohio)  rose  to  a  question  of  order.  He  maintained 
that  the  amendment  was  not  bona  fide,  and  that  such  amendments  were 
calculated  to  injure  the  character  of  the  House.  He  appealed  to  the 
chair  to  rule  the  amendment  out  of  order. 

'  The  Chairman  said  it  was  not  for  him  to  judge  of  the  motives  of 
members  in  ofi"ering  amendments,  and  he  could  not  therefore  undertake 
to  pronounce  the  amendment  lona  fide.  Objections  might  be  raised  to 
it  on  the  ground  that  it  was  not  sufficiently  analogous  in  character  to 
the  bill  under  consideration ;  but,  in  the  opinion  of  the  chair,  it  would 
require  a  scientific  analysis  to  determine  how  far  the  magnetism  of  mes- 
merism was  analogous  to  that  to  be  employed  in  telegraphs  (laughter)  ; 
he  therefore  ruled  the  amendment  in  order.     On  taking  the  vote  the 


356  DOCTRINES    OF   SPIRITUALISTS. 

amendment  was  rejected — ayes  22,  noes  not  counted.     The  bill  waa 
then  laid  aside  to  be  reported.' 

"•  The  temper  of  the  House, '^  says  Prof.  Morse,  "  is  easily  inferred  from 
this  narrative.  To  those  who  thus  ridiculed  the  telegraph  it  was  a 
chimera,  a  visionary  dream  like  mesmerism,  rather  to  be  a  matter  of 
merriment  than  seriously  entertained.  Men  of  character,  men  of  erudi- 
tion, men  who,  in  ordinary  affairs,  had  foresight,  were  wholly  unable  to 
forecast  the  future  of  the  telegraph.^' 

Sectarists  and  political  partisans,  at  their  Belshazzar  feasts, 
make  merry  over  modern  Spiritualism  in  much  the  same 
style  that  those  clergy  and  senators  in  Congress  spit  their 
venom,  in  the  form  of  dead  jokes  and  witticisms,  upon  mes- 
merism and  Prof.  Morse's  telegraphic  discoveries.  These 
now  stand  upon  the  Congressional  records,  living  and  "swift 
witnesses"  against  the  short-sightedness  of  their  perpetrators. 
Starved,  hunted,  persecuted  of  one  generation,  to  be  ban- 
queted and  honored  with  hero-worship  in  the  succeeding,  is 
the  world's  method  of  expressing  gratitude. 

♦'  To-day  abhorred  ;  to-morrow  adored, 
So  round  and  round  we  run." 

"When  this  youth  of  twenty  years — Spiritualism — puts  ol 
the  full  strength  of  sterling  manhood — when  it  expands  into 
the  proportions  of  a  moral  giant — when  its  theories  and 
prophecies  have  become  established  facts — when  its  visions 
have  taken  the  forms  of  tangible  realities — when,  as  in  the 
Nazarene's  time,  the  "  Rulers  of  the  Pharisees"  openly 
confess  the  gospel  of  spirit  communication,  then  will  the 
weak,  mimicking  masses  begin  to  *' banquet"  tbose  whom 
to-day  it  denominates  dreamers  and  enthusiasts. 

As  a  general  definition  of  Spiritualism,  the  following  is 
submitted : 

Its  fundamental  idea  is,  God,  the  infinite  spirit-presence, 
immanent  in  all  things. 

Its  fundamental  thought  is,  joyous  communion  with  spirits 
and  angels,  and  the  practical  demonstrations  of  the  same 
through  the  instrumentality  of  media. 


EXEGETICAL  SPIRITUALISM — GENIUS  OF  SPIRITUALISM.      357 

Its  fundamental  purpose  is,  to  rightly  generate,  educate 
and  spiritualize  all  the  races  and  nations  of  the  earth. 

Its  worship  is  aspiration;  its  symbols,  circles;  its  prayers, 
good  deeds ;  its  incense,  gentle  words ;  its  sacrament,  the  wine 
of  holy  affections  ;  its  baptisms,  the  fervent  pressure  of  warm 
hands  and  the  sweet  breathings  of  guardian  angels;  its 
mission,  human  redemption,  and  its  temple,  the  universe. 

Spirituahsm,  considered  from  its  philosophical  side,  is 
rationalism,  from  its  scientific  side  naturalism,  and  from  its 
religious  side  the  embodiment  of  love  to  God  and  man,  a 
present  inspiration  and  a  heavenly  ministry.  In  the  year 
nineteen  hundred  it  will  be  the  religion  of  the  enlightened 
world ! 

It  underlies  all  genuine  reform  movements,  physiological, 
temperamental,  educational,  parental,  social,  philanthropic 
and  religious ;  and  spanning  all  human  interests  with  holy 
aim,  it  seeks  to  re-construct  society  upon  the  principles  of  a 
universal  brotherhood — the  strict  equality  of  the  sexes. 

Desirous  of  greater  knowledge  touching  the  relations  of 
spirit  with  matter,  and  of  men  with  God  and  the  intelli- 
gences of  the  surrounding  world  of  spirits.  Spiritualists 
study  and  reverently  interrogate  the  laws  and  principles  that 
govern  the  phenomena  and  occult  forces  of  the  universe ; 
the  histories  of  the  past,  and  the  experiences  of  the  present, 
anxious  to  rightly  solve  those  psychologic  and  spiritual 
problems  of  the  ages — man's  origin,  capacity,  duty  and  final 
destiny. 

Interrelated  with  spirit  and  matter  in  their  varied  evolu 
tions,  and  with  the  highest  interests  consciously  connecting 
all  worlds.  Spiritualism  is  neither  supernatural  in  philos- 
ophy, nor  sectarian  in  tendency;  but  broad,  catholic  and 
progressive — the  voiced  truth  of  God  through  nature  to 
the  rational  soul — a  science,  philosophy  and  religion. 

Seen  from  this  mount  of  vision,  it  is  the  "  second  coming 
of  Christ;  "  not  in  person,  but  in  principle — the  divine  prin- 
ciple— the  indwelling  God — the  Christ-principles,  of  wisdom, 
love,  truth.     Since  the  physical  coming  in  Bethlehem,  the 


358  DOCTRINES    OF   SPIRITUALISTS. 

revolution  of  a  religious  cycle  has  been  completed.  The 
''  Kew  Jerusalem  "  is  descending;  the  "  hope  of  Israel,"  and 
the  promised  "  kingdom  of  heaven,"  that  must  be  preached 
to  all  nations. 

The  prophecy  is  now  fulfilling.  It  is  waking  to  higher 
life  the  inhabitants  of  India  and  China;  shedding  its  kind- 
ling glories  upon  the  hills  of  Hindostan ;  beaming  in  splen- 
dor along  the  vine-clad  foot-hills  of  South  America;  cross- 
ing blue  oceans,  it  is  unfurling  standards  of  progress  in  the 
peopled  isles  of  the  deep,  and  looking  down  in  its  might 
from  the  thrones  of  England,  France  and  Russia. 

Positive   science    consists  in  the   discovery,  co-ordination 
and  practical  application  of  natural  laws.     All  phenomena 
subject  to  the  natural  laws  are  for  the  same  reason  suscept- 
ible of  becoming  the  subjects  of  real  science.     When  once 
admitted   that   all   phenomena,  including   those    of  human 
existence,  physical,   mental,    spiritual,   are    the    subjects  of 
unchanging  natural  laws,  the  circle  of  scientific  research  and 
religious  aspiration  is  complete,  whether  geometrized  by  the 
inductive  or  deductive  method  of  reasoning.     Spiritualism, 
tolerant  as  divine,  clasps  and  consecrates  to  human  good  the 
true  and  the  beautiful  in  both  science  and  religion.     Seeing 
more  to  love  in  the  Jove  of  the  Greek  than  the  grim  Jeho- 
vah  of  the  Jew — more  to  admire  in  the  smiling  Olympus 
than  thundering  Sinai — more  truth  in  the  teachings  of  the 
old  Platonists  than  the  creeds  of  "  liberal "  Christians,  and 
more  true  worshipers,  after  the  pattern  of  the  meditative 
Nazarene,  in  the  living  Temple  of  N"ature  opening  as  the 
Pantheon  of  truth  for  all  races,  than  in  the  rented  pews  of 
bigoted  sectarists,  it  comes  to  the  thinking  millions  of  the 
nineteeth  century,  joyous  with  immortality  demonstrated^  jubi- 
lant with  proofs  of  the  future  identity  and  recognition  of  the 
*'  loved  gone  before,"  and  brilliant  with  precious  prophecies 
of  the  ceaseless  march  of  all  conscious  intelligences  toward 
the  higher  and  purer,  even  the  Infinite. 

"If  a  man  die,  shall  he  live  again?  "  was  the  question  of 
old.     W  'th  the  masses  it  has  been  the  problem  of  all  the 


EXEQETICAL  SPIRITUALISM — GENIUS  OF  SPIRITUALISM.      '^0^ 

centuries.  The  mourner,  blinded  by  tears,  propounds  it  to 
the  preacher  still.  In  sepulchral  tones  he  breathes  only  the 
word  "  Hope,"  and  that  tremblingly.  But  Spiritualism,  born 
of  heaven  and  pouring  its  celestial  tides  of  divine  life  into 
human  souls  till  they  become  clear  as  the  crystal  waters  of 
Paradise,  answers  the  inquiry  in  the  affirmative,  and  sustains 
it  by  tangible  demonstrations  and  the  testimony  of  living 
witnesses. 

On  the  grave  of  Orthodoxy  it  is  the  green  couch,  arched 
with  flowers,  for  the  weary  pilgrim.  In  the  worshiping 
temples  of  '•  Liberal  Christians,"  wherever  an  automatic 
Rationalism  is  brilliantly  cold  and  clammy  in  heart,  or  a  fierce 
iconoclasm  destroys  but  builds  not,  it  prophesies  "  change, 
speedy  change ! "  and  invites  the  bewildered  devotees  to 
listen  to  what  "  The  Spirit  saith  unto  the  churches  " — what 
the  angel  with  the  seven  seals  of  destiny  in  hand,  saith  :  "  1 
would  that  thou  wert  cold  or  hot,  but  because  thou  art 
lukewarm,  I  will  spue  thee  out  of  my  mouth." 

Spiritualism,  the  blossom  now  of  all  religions,  the  soul  of 
the  body  which  the  past  has  developed,  is  adapted  to  the 
genius  of  the  age  and  the  entire  human  constitution.  It 
addresses  his  reason  and  his  aspirations.  It  enlarges  the 
understanding,  and  gives  vigorous  activity  to  the  intellect. 
Its  benefits  are  not  exclusively  for  the  rich  or  poor,  virtuous 
or  vicious,  happy  or  unhappy,  civilized  or  savage,  but  for  the 
race  of  humanity  in  all  its  variety  of  endowments,  culture, 
character,  needs  and  circumstances. 

Authoritative,  so  far  as  it  expresses  truth  to  individual 
consciousness,  it  stimulates  all  instinctive  aspirations,  awa- 
kens the  divinest  emotions,  enkindles  the  most  magnificent 
aims,  and,  purifying  the  imagination,  strives  to  perfect  the 
whole  being.  Showing  the  naturalness  of  the  converse  with 
the  spirit-world  by  sympathy,  vision,  trance,  clairaudience, 
impression  and  inspiration,  its  tendencies  are  to  elevate  and 
spiritualize  the  afifeotions.  Bearing  the  olive-branch  of  peace, 
it  comes  with  manifestations  and  inspirations  from  heavenly 
worlds,  and  strives  to  maintain  the  republic  of  God  in  every 


360  DOCTRINES    OF    SPIRITUALIST'. 

heart  It  is  not  destructive  alone,  but  constructive.  It 
brings  from  the  chrysalis  of  old  forms,  risen  men  and  women 
"  clothed  in  their  right  minds."  It  invites  the  children  of 
earth  to  daily  walk  the  mount  of  Beatitude,  and  commune 
with  the  transfigured  who  softly  glide  along  the  summer  land- 
slopes  of  eternal  progress.  It  extends  the  shining  hands  of 
angels  who  talk  of  love  and  sing  of  the  high  birth.  It  wipes 
the  tears  of  sorrow  from  weeping  eyes,  breathes  the  sweet 
breath  of  tenderness  into  starving  souls,  and,  sweeping  away 
the  lingering  clouds  of  death,  bids  all  God's  dear  humanity 
tread  the  pearl-paved  paths  traversed  by  the  triumphal  armies 
of  heaven.  Oh,  how  re  freshing,  burdened  with  cares  and 
crosses,  to  catch  occasional  breezes  from  Eden-lands,  and 
songs  of  encouragement  from  immortalized  hosts  of  reform- 
ers, martyrs,  apostles,  prophets !  Lifting  the  glass  of 
memory  and  reverting  backward,  it  reveals  the  eternal  pur- 
pose of  good  from  seeming  evil — of  sorrow  blossoming  into 
joys,  of  thorns  transformed  into  roses,  and  tears  crystalizing 
into  pearls  of  matchless  brilliancy.  Musical  with  the  love- 
ministries  of  angels,  it  is  a  perpetual  baptism  from  on  high, 
a  continual  regeneration,  a  succession  of  higher  births  and 
endless  privileges,  a  gentle  dispensation  of  divine  love  guided 
by  wisdom,  the  strength  of  the  weary,  the  balm  of  healing  for 
the  sick,  the  consolation  of  the  dying,  the  comfort  of  the 
mourner,  and  the  sweetest  answer  to  prayer !  As  a  moral 
power  in  the  world,  its  influence  is  exalting,  its  purpose 
uplifting,  its  work  apostolic,  its  inspiration  continuous,  and, 
with  improved  implements  suitable  for  all  redemptive  pur- 
poses, its  great  design  is  to  lift  humanity,  through  angel 
ministry,  into  higher  physical,  mental  and  spiritual  condi- 
tions, preparatory  to  that  future,  progressive  existence  that 
stretches  in  increasing  love-lines  along  the  measureless  eras 
of  eternity. 

Spiritualism,   the   desire   of  all   nations,    symbolized    by 
"  light,"  beautifully  expresses  the  out-flowing  love  of  God — 


EXEGETICAL  SPIRITUALISM — GENIUS  OF  SPIRITUALISM.      361 

the  divine  principle  of  holiness— the  indwelling  Christ-prin- 
ciple of  love  and  salvation — the  Arahula — the  comforter — 
the  divine  guest — the  Savior  of  the  world. 

Incidentally,  Spiritualism  incites  unflinching  action  on  the 
plane  of  moral  principle;  renders  one  tenderly  sympathetic  ; 
reasonable  and  rational,  and,  subjecting  the  passions  to  wis- 
dom and  virtue,  it  awakens  holy,  emotional  affections,  rooted 
in  God.  It  induces  fidelity  to  promise,  and  abounds  with 
charity. 

"There  is  a  grandeur  in  the  Soul  that  dares 
Live  out  all  the  life  God  lit  within  ; 
That  battles  with  the  passions  hand  to  hand, 
And  wears  no  mail  and  hides  behind  no  shield! 
That  plucks  its  joy  in  the  shadow  of  Death's  wing — 
That  drains  with  one  deep  draught  the  wine  of  Life, 
And  that  with  fearless  foot  and  heaven  turned  eyes, 
May  stand  upon  a  dizzy  precipice, 
High  o'er  the  abyss  of  ruin,  and  not  fall !  ' 

Facing  the  frowning  Alps,  the  impassioned  Napoleon  said: 
*' Officers!  soldiers!  the  eyes  of  all  Europe  are  upon  you — 
conduct  yourselves  accordingly !  " 

Spiritualist !  the  eyes  of  the  church,  of  the  world,  of  the 
angels,  are   upon    thee;    conduct  thyself  accordingly!     Quit 
thyself  like  a  man.     So   guide   thy   bark,   that   though   it 
flounder  in  tempestuous  seas,  it  may  right  itself  again  for  a 
safer  voyage.     Live  to-day  for  to-morrow,  for  eternity.     Be 
above  the  commission  of  an  unworthy  act.     Tread  not  on 
the   threshold   of  thy  neighbor  only  with  the  purest  and 
loftiest  intentions.     Filch  no  entrusted  secrets  from  others. 
Indulge  in  no  ignoble  insinuations.     Take  no  selfish  advan- 
tage of  another's  weakness.    Be  candid  and  sincere.    Affirm 
thyself.     Celebrate  thyself  in  goodness.     Testify  of  thyself 
in  integrity.     Be  a  practical  reformer.     Seek  no  praise,  nor 
fulsome  flattery.     Intrigue  for  no  office.     Fail  of  thy  pur- 
pose rather  than  secure  it  by  dishonorable  policy.     Partake 
of  the  bread  of  honest  labor.     Administer  reproof  in  gentle- 
ness and  love.     Forgive  as  thou  wouldst  be  forgiven.     Kind 


362  DOCTRINES    OF   SPIRITUALISTS. 

to  the  poor,  the  unfortunate,  the  sick,  the  dying — live  to  lift 
up  others,  to  brighten  the  chain  of  friendship,  to  educate 
mind  and  heart  for  a  heaven  on  earth.  Enflower  the  path- 
way of  humanity  with  the  beautiful  in  life ;  plant  gardens  of 
love  in  unhappy  bosoms ;  welcome  the  angels  to  angelize  the 
shades  of  our  pilgrimage,  and  be  welcomed  into  light,  the 
eweet  light,  the  music  light  of  Immortality ! 


LONTENTS. 


General    Diyisions. 
PREFATORY. 


Page. 

1.--GbBETING   to    A.AKON   NiTB i-      4 

2.— The  Hokosc   ?e 6-  10 

I.  SPIRIT  OF  THE  PRESENT  AGE. 

Chap.  I. — Spirit  df  the  Age 13-  19 

XL— Spiritual  Ratios 20-  22 

II.  ANCIENT  HISTORIC  SPIRITUALISM. 

Chap.   TIT.— Indian 25-  30 

IV. — Egyptian 31-  35 

v.— Chinese 36-  40 

VI.— Persian 41-  43 

VII.— Hebraic 44-  62 

VIII.— Grecian 53-  67 

IX.— KoMAN 68-  74 

III.  CHRISTIAN  SPIRITUALISM. 

Uhap      X. — The  Foreshadowing 77-  79 

XL—Mythic 80-  88 

XII.— Theologic 89-  93 

XIII.— The  Nazarene 94-110 

IV.  MEDIEVAL  SPIRITUALISM. 

Chap.    XIV. — Transitional 113-117 

XV.— Apostolic 118-120 

XVI.— Post-Apostolic ...121-128 

XVII.— Neo-Platonic 129-185 

XVIII.— Churchianic 139-187 

363 


364  CONTENTS. 

V.  MODERN  SPIRITUALISM. 

Chap.    XIX.— The  Prelude ., 191-194 

XX.— Spirit  Phenomena 197-202 

XXI.— Mediumship 203-206 

XXII.— Witnesses 207-215 

XXIII. — Clerical  and  Literary 216-246 

XXIV.— Poetic  Testimony 247-253 

VI.  EXEGETICAL   SPIRITUALISM. 

Ofap.  XXV. — Existence  of  God L^4-260 

XXVI.— The  Divn^r  T>^aqj5 , 26}-264 

XXVII. — Moral  Status  of  Jesus 265-272 

XXVIII.— The  Holy  Spirit 273-2T6 

XXIX.— Baptism  277-27^ 

XXX.— Inspiration 280-284 

XXXI.— Beauty  of  Faith 285-288 

XXXIL— Repentance 289-292 

XXXIII.— Law  of  Judgment 293-296 

XXXIV.— Evil  Spirits 297-308 

XXXV.— Hell 1 309-317 

XXXVL— Heaven 318-324 

XXXVII.— Historic  Immortality 325-329 

XXXVIII.— Resurrection 330-340 

XXXIX.— Prayer 341-344 

XL. — Freedom  amd  Function  op  Love 845-352 

XLL — Genius  of  Spibitualism  868-862 


Index. 


AND 


Alphabetical    Classification. 


PAGE. 

Abraham — 

Brahminic  28 

Ageippa 149 

Alexandria 
Eclectic  School 129 

Ambrose 127 

Angels — 

National     superin- 
tendence  122,  125 

Incarnation 125 

Reverence  for 143 

Higher  than  spirits319 
Ministers  of  God...  49 
Names  of.27,  39  49,  114 

Congresses 192,  193 

Guardians 115 

Angles — 

Symbolic 10 

Ante-Natal — 

Perversities 348 

Of  Jesus 79,  94 

Appollinaris 119 

Apolonus — 

Guarded  by  spirits.114 

Apostolic  Fathers..118 

Apparitions 72 

Aristides — 

On  healing 61 

Atonement  290 

Augustine 127 

Beautiful    testimo- 
ny  141 

Aubrey,  John — 

Exorcisms 163 

Barne,  Rev.  Dr.  A. — 
Testimony 237 

Baxter,  Richard — 
Testimony i2 


page. 
Baptism — 

Spiritual 277 

Water  baptism 278 

Spiritualized  water  279 
Ballou,  Adin — 

Testimony 229 

Ballou,  Dr.  Eli — 

Testimony 229 

Babel 48 

Bacon,  Lord — 

Testimony 160 

Bacon,  Roger 143 

Beveredge,  Bishop — 

Testimony 155 

Beethoven 171 

Beecher,  H.  W. — 

Testimony 217 

Beauty  of  Faith 285 

Bell,  Robert — 

Testimony 241 

Bhagavat  Gita 81 

Antiquity  of 84,  85 

Bible — 

Canonical  voting...  95 

Translators  of. 96 

Inner  sense 159 

Blake,  William — 

Testimony 166 

BoDiN 149 

Bcehmen,  Jacob — 

Testimony 158 

Bread  of  Life 15 

For  spirits 43 

Brahmins — 

Sacred  Books 27 

Deific  ideas 27 

Bronte,  Charlotte — 

Testimony 233-4 

365 


PAGE. 

Bruno,  Giordano — 
Testimony 157 

Brown,  Sir  Thomas — 
Testimony 160 

Buddha 97 

Butler,  Bishop — 

Testimony 155 

Cary,  Phebe — 

Testimony.....  249 

Cardamus,  Jerome. ..157 

Cerenthus — 

Testimony 116 

Church — 

Anglican 156 

Private  circles 156 

Divorced  from  reas- 
on  166 

For  the  age 18 

Protestant 147 

English 152 

Catholic  fidelity 146 

Uninspirational 152 

''Slough    of    Des- 
pond " 153 

Sectarian  uses 15 

Decaying     tenden- 
cies   17 

Greek 142 

Church  Fathers — 
Immoral  teachings.  88 

Evil  spirits 115 

Spiritual  gifts 121 

Miracles 125 

Churchianic 139 

Chapin,  Rev.  E.  H.— 
Testimony 219 

Channing,  Rev.  W.  E. — 
Testimony 224 


366 


INDEX. 


PAGE. 

Chinese — 

Measure  of  time       26 

Chronology  of 26 

Bible  of 36 

China — 

Mental  structure...  36 

By  Burlingame 38 

Christ — 

Theologic 89 

Chalda  in  India 28 

Chkistianitt — 

Primitive 105 

Chrishna — 
Identical    with 

Christ 81,  83,  85 

Incarnation 82 

Education  of 82 

Miracles 83 

Birth 83 

Descent  to  Hades...  83 

Antiquity  of 84 

Worship  of. 85 

Circles — 

Spiritual 205 

"When  needless" 206 

Law  of. ." 191 

Pentecostal 274 

Symbol  of  India...     8 

Waves  of 22 

Ethereal 32 

Civilization — 
Western  movements 

266 

Cicero 148 

Clarke,  Adam — 

Testimony 181 

Clairvoyance 151 

Highlanders 164 

Animals 164 

Thomas  Say    175 

John  Murray 184 

In  Asia 141 

Clairvoyants — 

Mistakes  of. 336 

Clergymen — 

Refusing  light 200 

Cowardice  of. 243 

Inconsistency  of.  ...313 

Injustice  of. 61 

Deceptions 81,  85 

Coleridge — 

Testimony 248 

Conic  Sections 258 

Congressional   Big- 
otry  355 

Constantinian  Era.. 139 


page. 
Confusion  op  Tongues 
48 

Confucius — 

Spiritual  charftcter  89 

Cranmer 153 

Creation — 

Duality  of 13 

Creeds — 

Athanasian 90 

Plan  of  salvation...  91 

Cross — 

Spiritual  sign 140 

Cyprian 125 

Dannecker 159 

Davenport  Brothers 
209 

Debes — 

Angel  healing 162 

Demons — 

Classical  and  scrip- 
tural   299 

Worshiped 34 

Good  and  bad 5q 

Mission  of 56 

Miracles 153 

Demon — 

Of  Socrates 58-9 

Death — 

Not  redemptive...322-3 
Professed       Chris- 
tians   328 

Birth 335 

Dissolves  not  spirit336 

When  conscious 337 

Ascension 67 

Incarnation 66 

Deluge 46 

Divine  Image 261 

Unity  of 264 

Divination 69 

Edmunds,  Judge — 
Testimony 207 

Egypt — 

Psychological  char- 
acteristics      9 

Wisdom  of 31 

Colonized  by  India.  45 

Egyptian   Jurispru- 
dence   32 

Elkin,  Rev.  H. — 

Testimony.  ..231 

Epimenides — 

France 61 

Poetical 61 

Essenians — 

Mystic  science 97 


PAGH. 

Essenians — 

Physicians 98-9 

Pythagoric 98 

Lineage 98 

Morality 100 

Social  system 100 

DiflFusive 100 

Evil 297 

Relative 297,  300 

In  spirit  life 298 

Uses  of 305 

Evil  Spirits — 

Ministrauts 298 

Exorcism — 

Law  of. 123,  163 

Method  of  Fathers.125 

By  Apollinaris 119 

By  Jesus 302 

Faith 297 

Defined 285 

Spiritual     correla- 
tion  286 

Practical 286-7 

Funeral  emblems. ..340 

FisK,  Rev.  Dr. — 

Testimony 230 

Fletcher,  Rev. — 

Testimony 180 

Fox,  George 161 

Freedom  and  Func- 
tion OF  Love 345 

Friends  of  God 146 

Garrison,  Wm.  L. — 
Testimony 236 

Gassner,  Dr. — 

Prophecy 168 

Ghost — 

Translation  of. 273 

Genius  of  Spiritual- 
ism  353 

Gnosticism — 

Origin  of. 81 

Inductional 130 

Gnostics — 

Concerning     Jeho- 

veh 28 

Spirits  ascended  ...  62 
Representatives 130 

GowDY,  Rev.  G.  S. — 
Testimony 228 

Golden  Rule 104 

God— 

Absolute  and  rela- 
tive  254 

Inner  soul 255 

Defined 256 


INDEX. 


367 


PAGE. 

God— 
Consciousness  of.. ..256 

Unprogressive 257 

Father  and  Mother. 259 
Order  of  manifesta- 
tion  259 

Voice  of  the  pres- 
ent    15 

Pythagoric 102 

Testimony    of    an- 
cients  102 

Duality  of 114 

Revealed  by  angels. 122 

Qreely,  Horace — 
Testimony 234 

Greece — 
Psychological 

structure 63 

Oracular  religion...  54 
Mythology  and  the- 
ology    62 

Gregory 127 

Gregory  VII 143 

Grossetete,  Bishop..145 

GuizoT 140 

Gymnosophists — 

Wisdom  of. 98 

Haunted  Houses — 

Obsessed 163 

Baxter's  statement.163 
Homes  of  spirits  ...142 

Hades — 
Of  the  Greeks 66 

Hall,  Bishop 154 

Hepworth,  Rev.  G.  H. — 
Testimony 226 

Hellenists 267 

Knowledge  of  gods  56 

Hell — 

Description  of.309-312 
Biblical  Exegesis  ..313 
Spiritual  view 316 

Heaven — 

Names  of 318 

Local 320 

Promise  of...320,  338-9 

On  earth 321 

Conditional 321 

Employments 322 

Hebrewism — 

From  India 28 

Origin     of    Scrip- 
tures   44 

Theology 45 

Civilization    Egyp- 
tian   54 


PAGE. 

Heathen — 

Scholarship  of 103 

Hermas 124 

Historic    Immortal- 
ity  325 

Hierombalus — 

Priest  of  lao 28 

History — 

Psychological 6 

Hindoos — 

Originally  not  idol- 
aters   28 

Howitt,  Wm. — 

Testimony 238 

Horoscope..., 5 

Homer — 

Guardians  of 55 

Iliad  and  Ramaya- 
na 55 

Hooker,  Judicious — 
Testimony 154 

Human  Brotherhood — 
103 

Hugo,  Victor — 

Testimony 237-8 

Hume — 

Seances 209 

Ignatius 119 

Immortality — 

Basis  of 262,  264 

Platonian 57 

Socrates'  view  of..    59 

Animals 262 

Universal  belief.. ...263 
Ancient  testimony. .326 
N.  A.  Indians 328 

Imagination — 

Effects  of 157 

Founded  in  facts. ..266 

Indians — 

Infant  seership 164 

Abuse  of. 186-7 

India — 

Historic  greatness..  25 

Philosophy 27 

Mother  of  tribes  ...  29 

Insanity — 

Obsessions 304 

Cure  for 305 

Infidels — 

Honesty  of 200 

Infanticide 337 

Inscriptions — 

Hindoo 84 

Golden  ages 198 

Inspiration 280 


page. 
Insp.eation — 

Signs  of 35 

Poetical 61 

Varied    to     condi- 
tions  281 

General  and  special  282 

Perpetual 283 

Sacred  everywhere  284 

Iren^us 121 

Irving,  Washington — 

Testimony 233 

Island — 

Ancient,    now    ex- 
tinct   26 

Israel — 

Mental  structure...  44 

Jamblichus 133 

Jesus — 

Moral  status.. 265 

National    culmina- 
tion  265 

Real  personage  266 

Brother  man 268 

Faithful 269 

Progress  of 269 

Exorcising 307 

Scholarship 60 

Prophecy  of 78 

Ante-natal 79,  94 

Associations 95 

In  Egypt 96,  97 

Essenian 97,  99 

Interior  life 101 

Doctrines  derived    103 

Precepts  of. 106 

Character  of 107 

Mediumship 107 

Cotemporaries 113 

Jehovah — 

Priestly  origin 34 

Jeud 46 

An  angel...49,  115,  117 
Jews — 

Inferior  to  Classics  46 

Jerome 127 

Joan  d'Abc 157 

Josephine 169 

John 268 

Scholarship  of 81 

Jones,  Sir  William..  26 

Justin,  Martyr 122 

Judaism  Paganized.. .13^ 
Julian,  the  Apc state 

141 

Judgment — 

Biblical 294 


868 


INDEX. 


PAGE. 
JirDGMENT 

Inward  law.... 294,  295 

Spiritual 296 

Kabbala 41 

Ker,  Rev.  W.— 

Testimony 232 

Keener 305 

Knox,  John 164 

Secret  Spiritualist.165 
Language — 

Hebrew 26 

Sancrit 26,  38 

Shemitic 27 

Lao-tse 39 

Latimer 153 

Lee,  Ann 182 

Le  Can 36 

Lincoln,  Abraham... 242 
LivERMORE,  Mrs.  M.  A. 

Testimony 250 

Literature — 

Homeric 80 

Hindoo 80 

Louis  XVI 168 

London  Times — 

Testimony...  237 

Longfellow — 

Testimony 249-9 

Lowell — 

Testimony 253 

Love — 

Selfish 346 

Not  lust 348 

Purely  free 350 

Progressive 350 

Universal 352 

Luther,  Martin 145 

Roaring  Devil 146 

Healing  power 147 

Man  and  Woman 261 

Marriage 349 

Magnetic  Telegraph 

355 

Mather,  Cotton 165 

Maria  Antoinette. ..168 
Madame  Elizabeth... 169 

Mayo,  Rev.  A.  D 227 

Matter  and  Spirit. ..257 

Magic  Staff 33 

Magicians — 

Persian 41 

Magic 43 

Rivalship 50 

"Wisdom" 50 

Manetho — 
Oa  Hebrews 45 


PAGK. 

Magnetism 99 

Materialism 140 

Mediumship — 

Disorderly 173 

Orderly 174 

Universal 203 

General  phases 205 

Children 234 

Truth  in  failures... 235 
Pythian 70 

Methodists 180 

Melancthon, 147 

Saved  by  spirits 147 

Miracles — 

Faith-principle 271 

Milton — 

Testimony 251 

Moral  Responsibil- 
ity  298,  308 

Mozart 170 

Beautiful  death 171 

Moses — 

Seeing  God 51 

Egyptian  medium..  34 
Persian  rites 45 

montanus 124 

Mouravieff — 

Testimony 142 

Murray,  John 184 

Mummies — 

Hebraic  heads 45 

Music — 

Philosophy  of 64 

Myths — 

Brahminic  27 

Mythic  Jesus  80 

Neo-Platonic 129 

NiTE,  Aaron — 

Greeting  to 3 

NiCENE  Council 353 

Obsessions — 

By  curiosity 160 

By  influence 301 

By  neglect  of  rea- 
son  122 

Deaf  and  dumb  302 

Tutelary 126 

General  belief  in  303-4 
Supposed  di8eases..303 

Law  of  ingress  306 

Cures  for 307 

Oracles — 

Tower  of  Belus  29 

Golden  ship  35 

Inarticulate 60 

Delpliian,  etc 70 


PAGB 

Oracles — 

Christ  and  Chrirttna  85 

Origin 125 

Orthodoxy 16 

Parkeb,  Theo. — 

Testimony 221 

Grave  of 220 

Paracelsus 156 

Law  of  healing 156 

Passions 348 

Pastophora 8 

Palestine — 

Psychological 9 

Jewish  character...     9 

Past — 

Religious  uses  14 

Representatives 15 

Virtues  of 21 

Persecutions — 

Of  church.  ..142,  144-5 

Of  Catholics 149 

Against  Tasso 151 

Of  inquisition  157 

Of  Puritans 165 

Of  English  158 

For  heresy 159 

Of  Methodists  180 

Peter  d'Apono 144 

Persia — 

Psychological 

structure 41 

Commerce 41 

Mythology 42 

Pentateuch — 

Brahminical 45 

Pharisees 267 

Philo  Jud^us — 

Cosmogony  ...113,  114 

Phcenecians — 

History  of 28 

Commerce 28 

In  America 29 

Cosmogony 46 

Pictures — 

Of  Grecian  saints  ..142 

Plato — 

Dialogue 67 

Planchette 208 

Scientific  American214 

Pliny — 

Oracular 72 

Plotinus — 

Theology  of 131 

Post- Apostolic 121 

Potter,  John — 

Building  church.. ..186 


INDEX. 


369 


PAGE. 

POEPnYRY 132 

Learning  of  132 

Works  burned 132 

Teachings 133 

Poetic  Testimony 247 

Soul  prophets  247 

Poets — 

Interpreters  of 

gods 57 

POLYCARP 

Vision  of. 118 

Moral  courage 119 

Prayer 341 

Virtue  of 342-344 

Healing 342 

Hypocritical 343 

Receptive 134 

Pre-existence — 

Of  Jesus 116,  271 

Of  all 125 

Philo  Judaeus 114 

Prescott,  Elder  J.  S — 
Testimony 183 

Progress — 

Circles 191 

Scientific 199 

Relatively  finite. . . .  258 

Causal 13 

Spiral 25 

Proclus 135 

Divine  demon  135 

Prophecy — 

By  fasting 133 

Of  inventions 144 

Of  discoveries 148 

Laws  of 144 

Of  schisms 145 

Blazing  star   153 

Spirit  guided 158 

Of  mutations  165 

Of  death 169 

Of  Shakers 183 

Queen  of  France  ...170 

Of  books 193 

Of  Miller  193 

Of  A.  J.  Davis 194 

Of  Nineveh 48 

Of  "Rappings"  ...193 
Psychology — 

Fantastic  forms 116 

Sign  of  cross 140 

Ante-natal 87,  114 

Return  of  Jesus 108 

By  Moses  51 

Pythagoras- - 
Incarnation  86 

24 


PAGE. 

Pythagoras — 

Scientific  travels...  86 
Identical  with  Je- 
sus   86 

Characteristics  87 

Angelic  child 87 

Mediumship 87 

Gymnosophic 98 

Races^ 

Shemite 27 

Rashees 98 

Raphael 159 

Religion — 

Consecutive  105 

Modified 105 

Psychological 106 

Biblically  three- 
fold   124 

Reid,  Rev.  H.  A. — 

Testimony 230 

Repentance — 

Law  of 289,  290 

In  future  life 291 

Reformation — 

Spiritual  mistake  ..146 

Resurrection 330 

Of  the  body 331 

What  to  be  raised..333 
Body  of  RogerWill- 

iams 332 

Jesus'  body 334 

Of  nature ....335-6 

Idiots  and  infants. .337 

Identity  338 

Progressive  339 

Rome — 

Psychological 

structure 68 

Romulus — 

Spiritual  address...  71 

Say,  Thomas 176 

Sanchoniathan — 

Pupilage 28 

Before  Moses 46 

Sanscrit — 

On  emigration 29 

Key  of  Buddhism  ..  38 
Sardonapolus — 

Faith  in  the  gods  ..  48 
Sallust — 

Law  of  correspon- 
dence   68 

Salvation — 

Inner  merit  92 

Universal 292 

Sadducees 267 


PAQB. 

Sanford,  Rev.  J.  P. — 
Testimony  230 

Schiller — 

Inspirational 161 

Scotch — 

Seership 164 

Infants  164 

Animals 164 

Science — 

Occult 34 

Scandinavia — 

Buddhistic  descent  29 

Sexual  Abuses 349 

Sects — 

Decline  of 186 

Shakers — 

Spirit  gifts 183 

Social  system 184 

Sherlock,  Bishop — 
Gifts  of  spirit  155 

Simon  Magus — 

Teachings 115 

Mediumship 116 

Skinner,  Rev.  G.  W. — 
Testimony 228 

Smith,  Gerritt — 

Testimony 236 

Solar  Spectrum — 
Analogous  with 

spirit 274 

Of  fragrance, 
blood,  etc 275 

Soul — 

Distinct  from  spirit335 

Germinal  forces 350 

Of  things  125 

Social  Science — 

Prospective  352 

Socrates — 

Testimony 58 

Death  of 59 

Death  by  evil  spir- 
its  , 122 

Sozomen — 

Church  historian... 140 

Spirit — 

Infinite  substance..  20 

In  man 20 

Creation  developed  21 

Spirits — 

In  prison 292,  317 

Classification 301 

Vanishing 334 

Author's  band 6 

Egyptian  gods 34 

Sustenance  of 108 


370 


INDEX. 


PAGE. 

Spirits — 

Return  of  ..32, 110,  212 
Of  Jesus'  disciples..  50 

Host  of 51 

Abodes  of 61 

Bands  of 204 

Spirit  of  the  Age  ...  13 

Spirit  World — 

Causation 192 

Described 

...319,  175,  176,  178 

Ratios  of  life 322 

Progressive  324 

Degrees  of 319 

Spiritual  Body — 

A  unit 336 

Sphere  of. 336 

Identity 338 

Spiritual  Dreams — 

OfCaracalla 72 

Attila's  bow 72 

For  Sculpture 159 

Spiritual  Deliverance 

From  drowning 180 

From  prison. ..141,  149 

From  fire ...134 

Waldenses 149 

From  robbers 154 

Spiritual  Forms — 
Opinion  of  Bever- 

edge 155 

Tully  thro'  Agrippal49 

Appear  as  men 46 

Seen  by  Tasso 151 

Old  Testament 52 

Spiritual   Force  (Mov- 
ing bodies) — 
Removing  stones...  142 

Brahmins  in  air 30 

Ancient   media    in 

air 35 

By  hair  of  head....  48 
Simon  Magus  in  air  116 

Clash  of  arms 66 

Commotions   of 

things 151 

Jamblichus     lifted 

up 133 

Guiding  a  ship 185 

Spiritual  dancing..l82 

Spiritual  Galleries — 
For  paintings 61 

Spiritual  Gifts — 

Transmissible 107 

Post-Apostolic 123 

Christian  proof  of..l55 


PA  ^. 

Spiritual  Gifts — 

Decline  of .28 

Of  3d  century 125 

Of  early  Christians  127 

Spiritual  Healing — 

Healing  temples 61 

Restoring  life 121 

Vespasian's    mira- 
cles   73 

Wesley's  laying  on 

of  hands, 179 

Secret  by  angels  ...155 

By  St.  Bernard 143 

Direct  by  angels... 

154,162 

By  Luther 147 

By  vision 154 

By  sign  of  cross 120 

By  Thomas  Say 176 

Egyptian  method...  34 
Of  the  5th  century.  127 

Spiritual  Inventions — 
By  Roger  Bacon.  ...144 

Spiritual  Influx — 
Conditions  of 175 

Spiritual  Leadership — 

Of  Joshua 149 

House  of  worship..l85 
Constantine's  cross  140 
Jerome  Cardamus..l57 

Spiritual  Music — 

By  angel  choirs 119 

For  Mozart.  ...170,  171 
At  death  of   Boeh- 

men 159 

In  the  sky 225 

Inspirational. ..61,  167 

In  rocks 33 

By  staves 201 

By  bells 63-65 

For  Beethoven 171 

Producing  trance.  ..135 

For  Mahomet 65 

Elegant  sounds 35 

Spiritual  Painting- - 
Spirits  seen  by  ar- 
tist  166 

Spiritual  Poetry— 
Inspiring  Tasso..  ..150 
Improvised,   Schil- 
ler  161 

Modern 247-253 

Spiritual  Rappings — 

Sweetness  of 198 

March,  1848 201 

In  1849 211 


PAGK 

Spiritual  Rappings — 

Through  Bodin 15C 

In  Wesley  family. ..179 
For  warning 163 

Spiritual  Sects. ..97,  98 

Spiritual  Speaking — 

From  heaven 119 

To  Columbus 148 

Spirit  of  Tully 149 

By  ancient  media...  35 

Spiritual  Sculpture — 
Impressed  by 

dreams 159 

Spiritual  Seership — 

By  Faith 155 

Of  Gregory  VII 143 

Of  Plotinus 131 

Spiritual    Table    Tip- 
ping— 
Chinese 87 

Spiritual  Visions — 

By  Louis  XVI 168 

By  Sylla 72 

By  Hermas 124 

By  Ambrose 127 

Mother  of  Hall 154 

Spiritual  Warriors — 
Joan  d'Arc 158 

Spiritual  Writing — 

In  1849 211,  213 

Alphabet 201 

Spirit  Pendulum  ...201 

Spiritualism — 

Universal 207 

English  believers208~9 

Catholic  idea 208 

Success  of 210 

In  Peru 210 

Permanency 215 

Grandeur  of 222 

Aggressive 355 

Future  of. 356 

Synopsis  of 357 

Propagative  358 

Religion      of      the 

world 359 

Beauties  of 360 

Heavenly  influence  184 
Perils  of  its  forces.306 

Virtues  of 276 

Effects  of  infidelity  167 
Of  the  5th  century.  127 

Spiritualists — 

Charge  to 361 

Illustrations....239,  240 
Independent 256 


INDEX. 


371 


PAGE. 

Spheres — 

Electric 204 

Emanation 274 

Of  plants,  blood  etc275 

Stoicism — 

Brotherly 103 

Stowe,  H.  B. — 

Testimony 223 

SWEDENBOKGIANS 

Estimate  of  Spirit- 
ualists   174 

Sympathy — 

Between   the  two 

worlds 198 

Harmonial. ..  - 204 

Musical  64,  163 

Symbols — 

Of  Trinity 8 

Of  India 8 

Of  Egypt 9 

Of  Palestine 10 

Taylor,  Bayard — 
"  Mysterious    inci- 
dents " 226 

Tasso — 
Spiritual  poems, etclSO 

Temples — 

Of  Jove 29 

Of  Serapis 32 

Of  Memnon 33 

For  manifestations.  34 

Tertullian 123 

On  exorcisms 122 

Character  of 123 


PAGE 

Tennyson — 

Angel  guardians... .251 
Thackeray — 

Testimony 241 

Theurgy — 

Conditions  of 134 

Theraputes — 

Of  Egypt 99 

TiLLOTSON 155 

Time— 

Spiritual      impres- 
sions   20 

Titus — 

Address  to  soldiers.  51 
Tiberius — 

Warned  by  spirits..  71 
Townsend, Rev.  Dr... 
0.— 

Testimony 236 

TowNE,  Rev.  E.  C— 

At    Pierpont's    fu- 
neral  241 

Tower  of  Belus — 

For  oracles 29 

Transfiguration — 

Of  brain  organs 348 

Trance — 

Of  Methodists .180 

Quaker,  Say  176 

Early  Christians....l23 

Of  boys 126 

"Sacred  Sleep"....  33 
Triangle — 

Horoscopic 9 


1  AUB. 

Trinity — 

Hindoo 81 

Trithemius — 

Mental    telegraph- 
ing  160 

Tuttle,  Rev.  J.  H. — 

Testimony «282 

Universalism — 

Crystalizing 186 

Vespasian 72 

Vice — 

Spiritual  injury,....  69 
Vishnu — • 

Incarnation 81 

Walton 168 

Waldenses — 

Spirit  guided 148 

Wesley,  John   178 

Whittier — 

Testimony 252 

Witchcraft — 

Of  New  England«..166 
Women — 

Spiritual 202 

Worship — 

Heavenly  19 

Angelic  liturgy 119 

YONGE 

On  the  gods 49 

Zend  Avesta — 

Angelic  origin 42 

Zoroaster — 

Spiritualistic «  42 


Names   of    the   Principal    Authors    Ponsulted, 

WITH    A    CLUE    TO   THEIR    MORE   PROMINENT   WORKS. 


Biggins,  Godfrey Anacalypsip 

Pythagoras,  by Jamblichus. 

Behme,  Jacob Concerning  the  Soul. 

Jenner,  Thomas  What  the  Soul  Is 

Baxter,  Eichard Nature  of  Spirits. 

Priestly,  Joseph Matter  and  Spirit 

Hittell,  John  S Pantheism. 

Fitche,  J.  H Phil.  Confession. 

Ennemoser,  Joseph Historic  Psychology. 

Glanvill,  Joseph Pre-existence  of  Souls. 

Parker,  Samuel,  Bp Platonic  Philosophy. 

Reynaud,  Jean Philosophy  of  Religion. 

Cardano,  Girolamo De  Im.  Animorum 

More,  Henry Philosph.  Poems 

Lavater,  David Human  Mind. 

Hume,  David Essays. 

Eckermann,  J.  C Immortality. 

Strauss,  D.  F The  Future  Life. 

Parker,  Theodore Sermons,  Lectures. 

Bunsen,  C.  C.  J Egypt-History  of  Religion. 

Rawlinson,  George Christ,  vs.  Heathenism. 

Schoolcraft,  H.  R Indian  Tribes. 

Mallet,  P.  H Northern  Antiquities. 

Rosellini,  J Egyptian  Monuments. 

Champollion-Figeac Ancient  Egypt. 

Wilkinson,  Sir  J.  G Manners  and  Customs,  Egypt. 

Klenker,  J.  F Zend-Avesta. 

Pope,  J.  A , Ardai  Yiiaf. 

373 


374  NAMES    OF   THE   PRINCIPAL   AUTHORS   CONSULTED. 

Wilson's Rig  Veda 

Haughton,  Sir.  J.  G Institutes  of  Manu. 

Wilkins,  Charles Bhagavat  Gita. 

Roer,  Dr.  E , Brihad  Aranyaka 

Colebrook,  H.  T Is.  Vara  Clirislina. 

Wilson,  H.  H Vishnu  Purana. 

Ward,  William Mythology  of  India. 

Muller,  Max Languages. 

Gutzlaflf,  Chas Buddhism  in  China. 

Guignes,  M.  de Confucius 

Collie,  David Chinese-Sse-shu. 

Legge,  James Chinese  Classics 

Jortin,  John Dissertations. 

Whewell,  DD.  Wm Plato 

Fincke,  C.  E Olympiodorus. 

Taylor,  Thomas Plotinus. 

Bellows,  J.  N Cicero's  Immortality. 

Warburton,  William Legation  of  Moses. 

Tillard,  John Beliefs  of  the  Ancients. 

Butler,  W.  A Lect.  on  Ancient  Philosophy. 

Dennis,  J Hist,  of  Theories  and  Morals. 

Kenrick,  J Rom.  Sep.  Inscriptions. 

Hampden,  R.  D Fathers  of  Greek  Philosophy. 

Calmet,  Augustus Dissertations. 

Priestly,  Joseph Knowledge  of  Ancient  Hebrews. 

Wette,  W.  M.  L.de Bib.  Doctrines. 

Chubb,  Thomas Dis.  on  Miracles. 

Philo,  Judaeus De  Infernis. 

Josephus,  Flavins Hist,  of  Jews. 

Taylor,  W.  C Hist.  Mohammedanism. 

Renan,  J.  Ernest Life  of  Jesus. 

Tholuck,  F.  A.  G Theos.  Per.  Pantheism. 

Olshansen,  H Ant.  of  Immortality. 

Friedlieb,  Leipz Sibylline  Oracles. 

Child,  L.  Maria Prog.  Rel.  Ideas 

Lactantius,  by  J.  B.  Le.  Brun Immortality  of  the  Soul 

Savonarola,  Girolamo Dialogues — Future  Life. 

Ambrose,  I.  U The  Last  Things. 

Clarke,  Samuel Lee.  and  Discussions. 

Benson,  Joseph Scrip.  Essay 


NAMES    OF    THE    PRINCIPAL   AUTHORS    CONSULTED.  875 

Newton,  Thomas Diss.  Int.  State. 

Dick,  Thomas Phil.  Future  State. 

Taylor,  Isaac N.  Hist,  of  Enthusiasm. 

Alger,  W.  R Hist,  of  Future  Life. 

Stuart,  Moses Dou>.  Sense  of  Scripture. 

Bush,  George Script.  Psychology. 

Ballou,  Hosea Atonement. 

Dewey,  Orville Views  of  Death 

Davis,  A.  J Nature^s  Divine  Revelations. 

Campbell,  Archibald Death  and  Resurrection. 

Robinson,  W Invisible  World. 

Miles,  J.  Browning Spirits  in  Prison. 

Luther,  Martin Doc.  Sermons 

Usher,  James  Abp Prayers  for  the  Dead 

Cudworth,  Ralph Intellectual  System. 

Locke,  John Immortality  of  the  Soul. 

Mosheim,  John  L.  Yon Eccl.  History. 

Wigglesworth,  Michael Des.  of  Last  Judgment. 

Neander,  Michael Heaven  and  Hell. 

Boston,  Thomas Fourfold  State. 

Swedenborg,  Emanuel Heaven  and  Hell. 

Balfour,  Walter Int.  State  of  the  Dead. 

Baxter,  Richard Saints  Rest. 

Chalmers,  Thomas New  Heavens  and  Earth. 

Newton,  Andrews Future  Life  of  the  Good. 

Channing,W.  E The  Future  Life 

Home,  Robert Sermons. 

Campbell,  Geo Dissertations 

Brownson,  0.  A Pun.  of  Reprobates. 

Tillotson,  John  Abp Eternity  of  Hell  Torments. 

Whiston,  Wm Sermons  and  Essays. 

Law,  William Address  to  the  Clergy. 

Emmons,  Nathanial General  Judgment. 

Winchester,  Elhanan Universal  Restoration. 

Edwards,  Jonathan Theo.  Controversy. 

Foster,  John Letter  on  Future  Punishment. 

Maurice,  J.  F.  D Theo.  Essays 

Crowe,  Mrs.-C.  (Stevens) Night  Side  of  Nature. 

Owen,  R.  D Footfalls— Bound,  of  Another  World. 

Howitt,  William Hist,  of  the  Supernatural 


376  NAMES    OF   THE   PRINCIPAL   AUTHORS   CONSULTED. 

Atkinson,  J.  C Reason  and  Instinct 

Zschokke,  Job.  D Med.  on  Death  and  Eternity 

Dubois,  B Doc.  of  N.  Testament. 

Denon,  M Hist.  Anct.  Religions. 

Maurice,  Rev.  Mr Ind.  Antiquities 

Jones,  Sir  Wm Asiat.  Researchea 


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